Security Camera Captures a California Woman Slammed to Ground by Stranger in Front of Her Home

One Fremont, California, woman survived a violent assault that left her hospitalized. Elsei Arling spoke with ABC7 News about the incident, sharing how she was assaulted by a stranger in front of her home. 

According to her, she heard her neighbor fighting with someone outside. When she went out to investigate, the man involved in the argument stole Arling’s phone. She explained how she gave chase to try and get her phone back, but that’s where her memory stops. 

“So I ran after him, grabbed the phone, and he did something. I don’t remember,” Arling said in the interview. 

What happened next was the reason Arling can’t remember anything. Fortunately, her home security camera caught the violent attack, and the family was able to piece together what actually happened. Now, Arling’s husband, Dutch, has started a GoFundMe to try and cover some of the expenses they are facing as a result of the assault. 

The moments Arling can’t remember appeared in black and white on a security camera video that was shared with ABC7 News. In the clip, Arling gets slammed to the ground by the alleged attacker, who left after the attack. 

Her husband was with the couple’s son when everything happened, and he learned that his wife had been injured when he received an alert on his phone about the police and EMS activity in front of his house. “At that moment I felt a lot of feelings towards the guy,” he told the outlet. 

Arling was taken to a local hospital where she was admitted. She spent a week in the ICU recovering from her injuries. “She has fractures on the right side of her head around the ear … She has about 50 percent of her hearing still, accompanied by swelling. Swelling of the brain,” Arling’s husband said of the aftermath of the assault. 

The Family Started a GoFundMe

The violent attack is just the latest in a series of unfortunate events the family has faced recently. In the GoFundMe, Arling’s husband wrote about the last few years. “This tragedy comes after several extremely difficult years for our family,” he wrote. “From 2024 through 2026, I battled cancer and was unable to work for much of that time. Elsei became our family’s primary breadwinner, while treatment and living expenses largely exhausted our savings, retirement funds, and even a recent inheritance.”

Now, he’s trying to raise some money so that the family can rebuild. The GoFundMe had raised more than $27,700 as of the time of publication, with the ultimate goal of $150,000. 

“We don’t yet know how long Elsei’s recovery will take or what additional treatment she may require,” her husband wrote. “That uncertainty is one of the hardest parts of this situation.”

According to ABC7 News, the Fremont Police Department plans to refer Arling’s case to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office. But as of now, the investigation remains ongoing.