An elderly Whakatāne man who was accosted after picking up a dumped street sign in Warren Park, believes it was likely a misunderstanding.

Eighty-eight-year-old Alby Lewis found the Otutehapari Road street sign while walking his dog at the park. Otutehapari Road is in Waihau Bay, a 150-kilometre or two-hour drive from Whakatāne.

Mr Lewis said he saw something shiny in the middle of the park, so he went to see what it was.

When he saw it was a road sign, he decided to pick it up and take it to the council.

He said he was surprised someone would bring the sign so far and then just leave it in a park.

As he was leaving, a man yelled across the street, “hey, you bastard, stop”.

Then, Mr Lewis said “the guy was running towards me”.

The man tried to take the sign from under Mr Lewis’ arm and a scuffled ensued.

Mr Lewis said he tried to explain that he was going to take the sign to the council, but the man didn’t seem to care.  

He suffered a bruise on the inside of his arm from the encounter.

A bystander intervened, speaking to the man who then shook Mr Lewis’ hand and left.

He doesn’t remember what was said because of the pain in his arm but thinks the man finally realised he was taking the sign to the council.

Mr Lewis does not blame the man for the injury, saying that it was all a big misunderstanding.

He said it was lucky he was wearing a thick woollen jumper “otherwise, I would’ve been cut to bloody pieces,” he said.

Whakatāne District Council said the sign was from the Ōpōtiki region and not its responsibility.

However, it accepted the recovered sign from Mr Lewis and planned to return it to the Ōpōtiki council for reinstatement.