'I was chilling in Erdington - then carjack gang with machetes smashed car window and beat me up'
The balaclava-clad thugs smashed a window of his Volkswagen Golf before dragging him from the car to beat him up and demand: "What you got on you?"
Despite telling them everything was inside the vehicle, the 22-year-old was struck in the ribs, kicked on the floor and punched in the face in a horrific assault near Perry Common Road, Erdington.
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The attackers fled with his £23,000 pride-and-joy, which he had worked hard for and saved for years since passing his test.
Police responded to a 999 call, but the driver claimed officers had not been in touch since his ordeal early on Tuesday, July 15.
"I can't sleep at night. I keep having flashbacks," he told BirminghamLive.
"I've always kept myself away from this stuff, so when it does happen, it affects me because I'm not a violent person. I just work, come home, see my mates, that's it.
"I just want them [the police] to crackdown on it, not just for me but for anyone else who goes through it."
After the attack, the victim took himself to hospital with injuries including a bruised rib, swollen lip, stiff neck and grazed knees from the floor scuffle.
"I was just chilling with my mate getting food. We were parked up, it was just a little car park - you could even see the main road from there," he recalled.
"All of a sudden about five people came from the park behind us.
"The first time I saw them they were by my driver's side window, they smashed it straight away, pulled me out of the car and started beating me up.
"They had machetes on them. They hit that into my ribs and started kicking me on the floor, punching me in the face. I don't know why, everything - my keys, my phone, wallet - was in the car.
"They never said much just 'what have you got on you, what have you got on you?' I said 'everything's in the car' and they were still beating me up. That's all they said to me."
No-one was seriously hurt but the victim feared his new car was destined for a scrapyard to be sold off as parts.
He said: "I called 101 because it was all over social media, someone said they saw it being taken into a scrapyard. Police said they couldn't do anything because they would need a warrant to go into the scrapyard. An officer said he would just 'pop it on the file.'
"I'm assuming they'll take all the parts of the car and just sell them separately.
"Police said they would take a statement the next day but I haven't heard back from them. It's like they don't seem bothered.
"Everyone's like 'have you told the police?, I'm like 'yeah but I don't think they're going to do anything.'" West Midlands Police said officers had been carrying out a 'thorough' investigation. No arrests had been made and officers were trying to "identify the people responsible."
"Officers have been exploring CCTV opportunities around the area, and have used a range of investigative tactics to try and find the car, which has been marked as stolen," a force spokesman said.
"We've also made efforts to contact the person who reported the robbery as we try to identify the people responsible.
"Anyone with information should contact us on 101 quoting crime reference number 20/309868/25."
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