The suspect in a Kindersley, Sask., break-in apparently made the mistake of bringing a hammer to a knife fight.

The suspect — a 50-year-old man from Fort McMurray, Alta. — is recovering from stab wounds and facing charges of assault with a weapon, breaking and entering, wearing a disguise and possessing a weapon.

The man was arrested by RCMP Sunday at a hospital in Kindersley after what police described as a failed home invasion on the property of a Kindersley business.

Why the masked man with a hammer showed up on the property of TKC Trucking and Picker Services is puzzling Troy Ching, who is with the company.

"Who sent him to do this? It was obviously a hit of some sort. There's 14 different people out there [at the TKC property]. How does he know who he's attacking, right?"

Skull mask and a hammer

TKC Trucking is one of more than a dozen companies serving the oil industry in and around Kindersley, about 200 kilometres west of Saskatoon.

The company's offices are in the town. It also has a farm house and five crew sheds on a property north of the community.

That's where Sunday's drama unfolded.

Ching says it was around 10:30 p.m. CST when workers in the crew sheds noticed a stranger walking into the farmhouse. The man was wearing a skull mask and carrying a hammer.

One of the workers went to investigate. The intruder said "You owe money," Ching said, before attacking the worker.

"He had a hammer, he was disguised with a skull mask and yeah, the guys seen him come in from the other shacks and went over there and … he went to attack the guy. The [worker] armed himself with kitchen knives and stabbed him a couple times. It was all self-defence," Ching said.

He said the accused intruder then took off and was apparently picked up by someone in a car. Ching learned later that he'd been arrested in hospital.

In a news release, RCMP said the TKC employee received minor injuries that did not require medical treatment.

The man accused in the break-in appeared in provincial court in Saskatoon Friday and will be back in court in Kindersley next week.

The matter is still under investigation and there is no word yet whether the trucking company employee is facing any charges.