Man attacked by armed men in Rolex theft attempt

A man has suffered a broken kneecap after three masked men with an axe attacked him in an attempt to steal his Rolex.

Darren MacKenzie, who runs Ripe n Ready Florist & Garden Centre in the Yardley area of Birmingham with his partner, was attacked on Saturday morning while opening up the shop.

Mr MacKenzie refused to give them the watch during a scuffle which lasted about 30 to 40 seconds, before police sirens scared the three away.

"It was just instinct. It's my watch, it was a present and it cost a lot of money," he told the BBC.

"It took a long time to save to buy it and [I thought] you're not having it."

Mr MacKenzie said he was pushed to the floor several times during the assault, but stood his ground and kept trying to get back up, despite one of the men waving an axe in his face.

His partner, Karen Minto, heard shouting while she was inside the shop, and saw three men in balaclavas outside.

"My first instinct was to run outside and help," she said.

"[One of the men] told me to move out of the way because the target was Darren, but I got in front of him and said no."

Mr MacKenzie believes someone will have seen him wearing the watch while working at the florist, prompting the attack.

"If you know watches, you'd know exactly what it was," he said.

Elsewhere in the West Midlands, a 17-year-old boy was stabbed in the leg on Saturday night, after a group of armed men broke into a Walsall home to steal a Rolex, gold jewellery and a substantial amount of money.

The aggravated burglary took place on Hawthorne Road between 22:40 BST and 23:20.

In April, a father and his sons were jailed for killing a man in a shop by beating him with a wrench, before stealing his two Rolex watches.

Follow BBC Birmingham on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [email protected]