Jennifer Dyer fell victim to a swooping bird in the same area under nearly similar circumstances, days before Victorian man James Glindemann was critically injured in a magpie attack.
Last Friday, when a bird hit her eye, Ms Dyer had a coffee and a bite to eat near the Gippsland Centre plaza in Sale, resulting in an ambulance ride to Melbourne and several operations.
If it was the same bird that attacked Mr. Glindemann, who suffered severe injuries to both of his eyes on Tuesday, is not clear, although Ms. Dyer believes it may be.
“I think it is one magpie,” she said.
“It’s got very used to people — people feed them, obviously, because they hang around on the ground and they’re cute.
“I like magpies … I’m not dirty on the magpie.
“It worries me for little kids there eating.
“It’s so quick, when it comes up you don’t even realise.”
Ms Dyer said she had been at the mall paying some bills before the incident.
“I thought I’d get a potato cake and a coffee,” she said.
“There were a couple of magpies on the ground — a mum and a little, young one.
“One, it flew up at me a little, and I said, ‘Oh yeah, go away’ — and then it flew up at me again and it got my eye.