Portland Man Sues Over Being Hit By A Snowball

A Portland private detective says the Hummer-driving stranger who hit him with a drive-by snowball, injuring his eye and breaking his glasses, picked the wrong target.

William Elich says within hours he had used his investigative skills to learn where the man lived, what he did for a living and any troubles he'd run into, down to his most recent traffic ticket.

Now Elich is suing Greg Scott Ely for hitting him with a snowball from the rented Hummer as he passed Elich on the street. He's seeking $4,350 in damages plus attorney fees.

Elich says he was about to enter Jake's Grill for an early lunch when Ely came by in the Hummer with a "dashboard lined with snowballs". And the snowball that hit him broke the left lens of his glasses and bruised his eyeball.

He says the loss of his "progressive bifocal glasses" forced him to miss work as a private investigator for eight to 10 days while he waited for a new pair of glasses.

But the other man, Ely says Elich has the wrong guy.

"I didn't throw a snowball at anyone", says Ely, adding that he doesn't see how Elich thinks he could fit his arm through the small window of the Hummer and throw a snowball while navigating the city's icy streets.

Elich says that seconds after he was hit with the snowball, he looked through his remaining good eye and note the license plate of the Hummer.

He called police but they told them it was one man's word against another so he's pursuing the case in civil court because he thinks the arbitrator "will see that he's a trustworthy member of the community who wouldn't make such a story up".

And what about the money? "I don't need the money", he says. "He needs to learn a lesson... This is a 32-year-old man acting like a 16-year-old".

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