Woman saved by Doo Doo the Clown says attack was no laughing matter
A woman saved by Doo Doo the Clown from a vicious assault earlier this week in downtown Toronto has told her story to CBC News, and it was no laughing matter.
"This guy was walking towards us and the first thing that stuck me was that he had no shoes on. He was in bare feet and it was really cold ... and I thought that was pretty strange," Diane Sonnenberg said.
Sonnenberg was walking near Front Street West and Bathurst Street with a friend Sunday when the assault happened.
"Just as he passed us, he lashed out and hit us, hit me and startled me — I screamed."
It was then that Doo Doo the Clown in his clown car came out of nowhere to save the day. Sonnenberg said she was shaken up but not traumatized by the event.
"I remember hearing somebody yelling 'get in the car, get in the car, this man is dangerous,'" Sonnenberg explained. "The guy went crazy and he wanted to get into the car so he started ripping the door ripping off my mirror. They say this is the hardest mirror to rip off a car," she continued.
Dash cam video of the events downtown went viral, and Doo Doo, who is also known as Shane Farberman, was given an award for bravery by Coun. Norm Kelly.
"You could tell this guy was pretty crazed and I was worried because he seemed to have, like, super-human strength," Sonnenberg said.
The woman was unaware at the time that Doo Doo had been on the phone with police after seeing the man jump on cars. He followed the man until police arrived.
Sonnenberg said her husband wasn't buying her story and thought she was clowning around.
"He didn't believe me," she said, adding he thought she was pulling his leg with the clown references.
But the clowns were no laughing matter on that day. The seemingly-crazed man ended up being detained by police, who say he's a 25-year-old who was allegedly under the influence of crystal meth at the time of the incident.
"I think the outcome would have been a lot different had they not been there," the woman said.
