A FARNHAM man is counting his blessings after seeing his 4x4 pick-up truck carjacked, before the callous thief ran him over in West Street last Wednesday. Gareth Riley, 27, miraculously suffered only minor injuries after the two tonne Mitsubishi L200 Warrior trampled his left leg, with his entire body under the chassis of the moving vehicle. "I advertised it for sale in Auto Trader," Mr Riley explained, "and the only thing I was worried about was shoddy notes. I didn't think I was going to be run over by my own vehicle in the middle of Farnham at 5-15 in the afternoon!" "I've got stitches in my head, cuts everywhere, marks on my leg and the thing that hurts the most is my elbow. But I'm not dead - if my head had been a few inches to the right, I wouldn't be speaking to you now. "An eyewitness said: 'you were completely under the vehicle - I really didn't expect to see you get up!', but thankfully it's high clearance," he added. Mr Riley, of Mead Lane, agreed to meet a man - claiming to be from Manchester - last Wednesday afternoon for a test drive. "We drove through Farnham town centre, out to the Six Bells roundabout, down to the Shepherd and Flock and along the bypass," he said. "We were coming back along West Street and he said: 'can I have a drive?', so I pulled over by Travis Perkins. "We both got out - I went round the back and went round the front, but I thought to myself: 'he's moving a bit swift'. He got in to the driver's side and when I got to the passenger's door he'd done the central locking. "I ran around to the front of the car, and banged on the bonnet, shouting: 'get out of my car!'. Meanwhile he's revving the car and he floored it," he added. What happened next was a blur - not to mention good fortune. "The car knocked me about two or three feet, and instead of reversing, he ran over my left leg. I tried to roll my head out of the way but rolled the wrong way, and went under the car. "Apparently my leg didn't break because of the speed he was driving at," added Mr Riley. Dazed and confused, Mr Riley attempted to give chase. "I tried to step up and run after him but I fell in a heap. I tried to phone the police, but I was dizzy and for some reason was trying to dial 911 not 999, but there were lots of people around who were really nice." After an eyewitness called the police, they were quickly on the scene. "Within a minute a policewoman arrived, which was brilliant", continued Mr Riley. "She said: 'what does the car look like?'. I said, 'you can't miss it, it's one of the most distinctive vehicles in Farnham. It's got blacked out windows, chrome lights and big shiny 20-inch alloy wheels. She said that she had just seen it and zoomed off." In the meantime, an ambulance arrived for Mr Riley, with further emergency transportation summoned. "As I was being put on the ambulance a policeman said that they had seven cars looking for my vehicle - and a helicopter. Apparently it was an ambulance one for me!", said Mr Riley. Subsequently, the 4x4 was located by a marked police car on the A331 Blackwater Valley Route, brought to a stop and the thief arrested in Lynchmere Road in nearby North Camp at 5-50 pm. A 42-year-old man from Coventry was released on bail until yesterday (wednesday) while the investigation continued. Unsurprisingly, the experience was a chastening one for Mr Riley. "I've never been anything so scary in all my life, and I'm no shrinking violet. I was brought up in a fairly rough area of Newcastle but I've never had anything like that happen to me in my life. "And it was quite ballsy. The guy has seen you, and he wants the car with the keys in, and doesn't care that there was lots of people about. "He said that he was dropped off by a friend who was waiting in a car park, so he had that sussed, but what he didn't think about was the getaway. If he had zoomed off up Crondall Lane, he would have been away, but because he wasn't local, he drove into the town centre in Farnham and you're going nowhere there!" "A policeman told me that there is a similar spate of 4x4 thefts in the South, and I wouldn't like to see anybody else go through the same thing. "If you sell a reasonably expensive vehicle, you must make sure you don't leave the keys in the ignition when you swap seats for a test drive," he added. Any witnesses or anyone with information are asked to contact Detective Constable Matt Evans at Waverley CID on 0845 125 2222.