&#8220Never in a million years did I think anything like this would happen,” John Allen said as he leaned his crutches against the wall beside his chair.

&#8220I just want to know who did this and why.”

In the early morning hours of Nov. 6, the South Fifth Street resident was literally run over by a car - and it was apparently no accident.

Police want answers to the &#8220who” and &#8220why” just as Allen does. They are investigating the incident as a crime.

Ironton Police Detective Capt. Jim Carey said he thinks this was a case of mistaken identity. He is looking for any information that will lead him to the two people who were in that car the night Allen was run over.

&#8220We just don't have anything,” Carey said. &#8220A couple of leads were checked out but it turned out that it was not the right people. We're considering this felonious assault based on what Mr. Allen reported.”

Anyone with information can call the detective's bureau at (740) 532-5606.

Allen, a petroleum inspector for Inspectorate America, was on his way home at 4:30 a.m. when he noticed a car following him down the street and into the alley beside his house. Assuming the people would see him, realize he was not the person they were looking for and drive on, Allen got out of his car and started to walk the few feet to his house.

&#8220I had the car door open. I had just pulled up in the alley and I got about two steps away from the car and they gunned it and hit me,” Allen recalled. &#8220They hit me and my car at the same time.”

Injured, Allen asked the two people in the car &#8220Why did you do this to me?” He recalled that the reply was &#8220you busted my windshield.”

Obviously, someone had broken the culprit's windshield: The passenger side was shattered.

&#8220But I told them ‘it wasn't me, I've been at work all night,'” Allen said. &#8220And one of them told the other

‘we'd better get out of here' and they took off.”

The injuries to Allen's leg has required surgery to implant a metal plate meant to hold up the break in his lower leg. He is a week-and-a-half into six weeks of recuperation before he can even put weight on it again. He is off work until a doctor gives him medical clearance.

Allen has even consulted a hypnotist in hopes of remembering more clues about that night. Since there is no street light near his house, what he saw was sketchy: The car was an older model vehicle, light in color, possibly silver. It was the size of Ford Contour or a Mazda. The passenger was a white male, possibly in his mid-30s with eyeglasses.

For Allen, his wife, Cathy and two children, the incident has been distressing at best.

&#8220This has tore my family all to pieces,” he said. &#8220 My wife works full time and she's had to work extra where she took off to help me. Then she has to come home and take care of me. I can't drive right now. It's been a real hardship.”

Allen said he hopes the people responsible will come forward, or perhaps people who may have heard them bragging about what they did will contact police. He also wishes whoever broke out someone's windshield that night would come forward, since that person may have clues as to who assaulted him.

In the meantime, he is left without answers: Were his assailants drunk or on drugs? Why did they do this? Who did they think he was? And where are they now?

&#8220I would hate to think someone did something like this in their right mind, all over a windshield,” he said. &#8220I'm scared what they might do next to someone else, if they did this to me.”