McCrory said he rolled down his window and told the man to leave, which is when he said the man cursed at him.
"'I recognize you,'" the man told the former governor. "'You're Pat McCrory, (expletive),' and I'm going, 'Uh- oh,'" McCrory said. "He proceeds to take his big limb from a tree that he is carrying across the street like Moses would and he slams it on top of my car."
McCrory said someone in another car recorded the attack from their phone. He said he thought about getting out of his car and confronting the man but instead, McCrory drove to the Park Road Shopping Center to call police.
Channel 9 obtained McCrory's 911 call to dispatchers.
"Was your vehicle damaged?" the dispatcher asked.
"Yes, he damaged it pretty bad on the roof," McCrory said. "I want make sure he doesn't do this to anyone else."
On WBT Radio, McCrory said, "I don't know if he was homeless -- don't know if he was a man of the neighborhood. I don't know if he was on something, but he did something bad -- could have escalated to something even worse."
According to the police report, the tree limb caused about $600 worth of damage to McCrory's car, but he said he's not sure how much it will cost to make repairs. There have been no arrests.