MEMPHIS, Tenn. — One man in the Raleigh area is left without a car and healing from many injuries after picking up a stranger from a corner store.

Melvin Harris’ family thinks the same man who stabbed Jenny Harris in her home on Spring Water Cove in Raleigh stabbed him and stole his truck after they met just three miles away.

“The police told me when I was at the hospital,” Harris said. “I could have been dead and gone, but I thank God for my life.”

On Saturday, Harris went to a mini market to find help with his yard.

“Cause I was getting ready to get dressed to go to the blues show, the Tri-State Blues Show, and I had 15 minutes of work to do, and I didn’t want to do it,” he recalled. “And so I went up there on the corner and picked up someone I did not know. But I am used to going up on the corner and picking up folks.”

However, this time was different. 

“He looked crazy, but it wasn’t nobody else on the corner for me to get,” he said. “He was nervous. He kept on walking back and forth. He looked weird. He looked like the devil was in him.”

Harris told WREG he hadn’t seen the man before. But an MPD incident report says Harris told police he had seen the suspect around the neighborhood because the suspect normally helps him around his yard. 

“They brought me about 57 pictures and asked me to identify the guy. I picked out two who look just like him,” Harris said.

What the suspect did next is something no one could imagine.  

“He moved the knife up, He said ‘I am finna kill you, take your truck, and rob you.’ I said you ain’t doing **** to me. And that’s when we got to tussling. I held on to the knife, that’s why I have all these cuts on my hand,” he said. “But he was too strong and young for me. He pulled me out the truck, and I fell on the ground. But he jumped up and went around to the driver’s side. But I grabbed the door and he started picking up speed.”

Melvin said he realized the suspect was not going to stop the truck so he decided to let go and yell for help. He now suffers from four broken ribs and more than 12 deep wounds. 

“It still kind of got me kind of shook up but I’m okay. I’m at home with my wife and I know she’s going to nurse me back well,” he said.

The police did find his truck near the Arkansas bridge, but Harris said when he gets it back, he won’t pick up any more strangers.

“Do the work yourself or wait on your son, one of my sons,” he said.