Rockford woman hit by truck during alleged vehicle theft

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) – A Rockford woman says she’s lucky to be alive after being hit by a truck driven by an alleged car thief.

“I honestly thought I was going to die,” said Zoey Albasri.

Albasri was at her parents’ 20th Street home on Aug. 11, celebrating family birthdays. Not long into the party, they noticed something strange in a nearby parking lot neighbors have permission to use. Two men in a pickup truck were hooking tow straps to her father’s van.

“They said they weren’t stealing the car,” she said. “They said they had someone pay them to tow the car to an auto shop.”

But nobody in Zoey’s family had called a tow company, so she called the police. While waiting for officers, she asked the men for proof that they had permission to take the van.

Things then went terribly wrong.

“He looked at me straight in my face and said, ‘I am going to sit here and wait for the police,’ and pressed his gas and hit me,” she said. “When he hit me, I flipped in the air twice and hit the ground.”

After bouncing off the pavement and limping away from the scene, Zoey, 24, realized she had just escaped with her life.

“If I didn’t hit the ground and roll because of how hard I hit the ground, I would have been under that car,” she said. “I would have been dead. It would have been the last time I see my kids.”

Zoey’s brother, Mahdi, said he still can’t get the image and the sound of his sister being hit by a car out of his mind.

“She flipped over in the air,” Mahdi Albasri said. “And when she flipped over in the air, she hit her head and then she hit her body.”

Mahdi attempted to chase the truck on foot but stopped to tend to his sister, who sustained only minor injuries.

The two men in the truck, Sammy Allen Hatcher and Roger Glenn Hall, were later arrested.  They’re now facing several charges, including aggravated battery and theft.

“It was just a normal day,” Zoey said. “It was my brother’s birthday—broad daylight. It was maybe like 6:30 p.m. So, yeah. It felt like my life flashed before my eyes.”

Zoey is now being treated for pain in her hip, arm and legs.

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