Pensioner Pete Jordan was being driven home in his son’s luxury car after five weeks in hospital suffering heart failure and pneumonia when the masked rider attacked
FORMER Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan told last night how his 80-year-old father tried to tackle a pistol-toting motorcycle bandit who stole his £127,000 watch.
The lead-up to the gunpoint robbery was caught on CCTV, with a masked motorcycle raider seen shadowing the ex-Crystal Palace chief’s Maserati on a busy road before stealing the watch.
Pensioner Pete Jordan was being driven home in his son’s luxury car after five weeks in hospital suffering heart failure and pneumonia when the masked rider attacked.
talkSPORT presenter Simon, 50, was forced to hand over his £127,000 Franck Muller timepiece, which was bought in 2004, to celebrate Crystal Palace being promoted to the Premier League.
Simon said last night: "My father was trying to get out of the car to deal with him.
"The gunman was ordering 'give me your f****** watch you c***' and I was telling him he wasn't having it – it seemed to last for a minute while he held the handgun to my head.
"Meanwhile my father was getting really p****d off going for the door handle. Even though he had been seriously ill in hospital, he still wanted to have a pop.
"He was shouting 'hold on a second you' and 'you pack it in'. I have no idea what would have happened if he had got his hands on the gunman."
Simon added: "He has always been a bit feisty, like father like son.
"I spoke to him this morning and he was still cursing that he could not reach him. He was full of praise for me for remaining so composed.
"In reality, I was trying to protect him, positioning my body, so if a bullet came my way it would miss him.
"I am just thankful I did not have my ten-year-old daughter in there as well."
Simon described it as a "who would blink first" ambush as he repeatedly refused to give the bandit the valuable watch through the open car window.
He added: "I did not have time to be terrified but I realise I could easily have been killed.
"It was a silver gun with a grey handle, it could have been a BB gun, a Beretta or a Magnum for all I know.";
He opened up about the ordeal to talkRADIO presenter Eamonn Holmes.
Detectives are hunting the attacker who struck on Wednesday afternoon while Simon was waiting at traffic lights in his home town of Croydon, South London.
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