A man is recovering in hospital after an act of kindness toward a stranger led to him dangling from a speeding car.

Jeff Hanson, a Toronto actor, said he was walking along Bathurst Street around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday when a man pulled up in a car and asked him for directions.

“I tried to find them for him and then he asked to use my phone to make his call because his (phone) had died,” Hanson told CityNews. “I dialed the number, handed him the phone and then he just took off.”

Hanson said his instinct was just to grab on and he found himself being dragged by the vehicle as it sped down the street.

“He got right up to about 60 or 70 (kilometers per hour) and I was kind of skating along the side of the car while he bobbed and weaved through traffic,” he explained.

Hanson said the driver kept yelling at him to let go but he knew if he did, at the speed they were travelling, his chances of survival were slim.

The driver repeatedly attempted to veer the vehicle into stopped cars and then made its way onto Barton Street where Hanson said the vehicle rammed into a parked car, which forced him to let go.

He said he doesn’t remember exactly how he survived the fall.

“I don’t know if I went up over the car or I kind of ran in between and did a roll but whatever happened I was able to protect all my body except my face,” he explained.

Hanson suffered a mild concussion and bruises to the face and chest.

Police say the same man, in two separate cases, stole two women’s iPhones – one in the College Street and Spadina Avenue Area, the second in the Bathurst and Harbord street area.

The suspect is described as white with tan skin, about 35 years old, six-foot tall, with short, brown hair and spoke with a distinctive British accent.

The vehicle is described as a white Charger- or Dart-type vehicle with LED lights on the rear.