You wouldn't think being a local TV journalist would be hazardous to your health.
But then, you're not Peter Silverman.
For the past few months, the
CityNews ombudsman has been probing the case of a King St. West optician alleged to be selling counterfeit frames bearing the mark of some famous companies.
The
Silverman Helps team has received numerous complaints about the product and so Peter went back to the store on Wednesday afternoon to shoot the next segment in this long running series.
It was promised as a peace-making endeavour.
It didn't turn out that way
As Peter tried to enter the store, the man inside recognized him and came out swinging.
Cameras captured him taking several swipes at the reporter, opening his door near Silverman's face, hitting him with some papers and then throwing snow at him and a TTC employee.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I hit you? Did I hit you?" he's heard asking sarcastically.
Silverman is now 75 years old but managed to give as good as he got, defending himself with his fists clenched.
His irate attacker then retreated back inside, locking the door and refusing to come out when police arrived.
The standoff lasted for some time before the Emergency Task Force finally coaxed him out. He's been placed under arrest.
The tough as nails Peter survived the onslaught and emerged relatively unscathed.
"I'm fine, I'm a hard person to really hurt, I've been in worse, probably better, but far worse," he said with a smile.
Thirty-three year-old Adam Plimmer is facing assault and assault with a weapon charges. The 'weapon' was a broomstick.
He was released pending a court appearance under several conditions - including staying away from Silverman and
CityNews.
The entire incident was caught on tape and will be shown on the next installment of
Silverman Helps on
CityNews at Six airing Thursday.
There's one important note to this story and it concerns an innocent bystander. It turns out there's an optometrist right next door to King West Opticians with a similar name. King West Eye Care is run by Dr. David Chu and Associates. He not only didn't have anything to do with what happened to Peter, he actually aided the Silverman Helps crew.
So we wanted to eliminate any confusion between the two places, because as you can tell from our experience, both are very different in the way they treat their customers.
Peter has been following this case since early October. To review all the stories, click the links below.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Peter Silverman's bio
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