PELHAM, N.H. (WHDH) - A Pelham, New Hampshire man says he’s thankful to be alive after a run-in with two burglars who locked his beloved dog in the closet before leaving him with stab wounds to his back and arms.
Steven Jackson said he arrived at his home on Koper Lane just after 7 p.m. Wednesday when he noticed that his dog was not barking and didn’t greet him at the door.
When he heard the dog scratching, he was surprised to find him locked in a closet.
Shortly after letting the dog out, Jackson said two men tried running by him in an attempt to leave the house, triggering a physical confrontation that left him with two stab wounds.
“If the knife in my back was an inch or so to the left, I probably (would) not even be standing. I would be paralyzed or worse,” Jackson said. “I got hit from behind, knocked down, (and) at that point, I grabbed one of the guys as he was going down. The guy that stabbed me in the back took a swipe at me sliced me in the arm.”
Jackson was taken to Holy Family Hospital in Methuen, Massachusetts, where he was treated for non-life-threatening injuries and released.
Jackson’s daughter, Taylor, says the situation could have turned deadly if her dad didn’t defend himself.
“The fact that you could have killed my dad, if my dad didn’t put his arm up for the second stab, they could have stabbed him in the chest,” she said.
Jackson described the suspects as a Caucasian male with longer hair and a Hispanic man with a red shirt, who were last seen fleeing out the back door of the home.
Salem police assisted Pelham police with a K-9 track but the two men were not found.
The suspects were possibly picked up by a car on Route 38 near the Salem town line, police said.
Police believe this was an isolated incident and the public is not in danger.
Anyone with information is asked to call the criminal bureau at (603) 635-2411.
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