An Aurora man who lost a finger when a robber violently yanked a new iPad away from him at a Denver mall this month was grateful police caught the alleged bandit who maimed him.
“Thank God, he’s off the street,” said Bill Jordan, 59, of the arrest early Saturday morning of Brandon Darnell Smith, 20. “I’m doing as well as I can for a man with nine fingers.”
Denver police arrested Smith at 1:14 a.m. during a traffic stop in the 3000 block of North Monaco Street, said spokesman Sonny Jackson.
Smith was being held for investigation of robbery and second-degree assault.
Jordan’s left pinky finger was amputated at the first knuckle shortly after the tax-day robbery near the Cherry Creek Shopping Center’s parking garage. His story was publicized across Canada and the U.S., and he has received well-wishes and cards from many people in the two countries.
Jordan said Denver Detective Brian Sides worked relentlessly to identify the suspect, including working 26 hours straight before Smith was arrested.
Jordan, a human resources director of an international uranium mining company based in Canada, had gone to the mall to pick up the hard-to-find iPad as a gift for an employee being promoted in Canada.
Jordan, who had the bag containing the iPad wrapped around his left hand, said it’s possible the thief watched him buy the new gadget and followed him into the garage. There, the thief grabbed the iPad bag hard once and then viciously jerked on it a second time, stripping skin and tendons off Jordan’s pinky to the bone.
“It was very painful,” he said.
Jordan looked down at his bloody finger and knew immediately it couldn’t be saved. “It kind of hit me like a lightning bolt,” he said.
He has been on powerful painkillers since the amputation and is discovering how much he misses his little finger.
He frequently types for his job and when he reaches for the “a” nothing happens.
He’s finding it difficult to do many small chores he once took for granted, like buttoning his shirt and tying his shoe laces. He is left-handed.
“It was a life-changing event that happened in a few seconds,” Jordan said. “It’s kind of hard to come to terms with.”
He held up his hand and showed his new stump wrapped with brown gauze.
“I don’t like to take the bandage off,” he said. “When you look down and see something like that, it has a psychological impact.”
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com
