Elderly man robbed, tied up for 4 days

The man had hitchhiked into town on Friday and withdrew money, Ladysmith Gazette reported.

He was then robbed and tied up in a vehicle before being driven out to the bushy area near the Klip River on the corner of Kandahar Avenue and Tanjore Road.

The elderly man remained there until a passerby walking through the bush found him this morning.

He had been tied up, face to the tree, with no water or food.

The passerby told nearby municipal workers what he had seen, and Public Safety was notified.

Public Safety immediately responded, as well as police and Sharaj Ambulance Services.

Sharaj paramedics quickly assessed the man’s injuries and treated him at the scene. He had cut marks on his hands from the rope, and his hands were swollen after being tied up for so long.

He was transported to hospital by paramedics, suffering from dehydration.

Crimes against the elderly continue to be reported.

Last month, an elderly man was killed during a housebreaking in Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal.

The man and his wife, together with their domestic worker, were brutally attacked in their home after three young men allegedly entered the premises.

The husband was strangled to death in the passageway, with his mouth and neck bound with socks.

In January, an elderly couple was badly injured in an attack on their plot in De Wildt, near Brits, in the North West.

Three armed men wearing blue overall pants attacked Hannes and Annetjie van der Merwe, both in their 70s, Brigadier Thulani Ngubane said.

“Three men covered in balaclavas came on to the farm, disarmed him, tied him and his wife up, started assaulting them and burnt them with a steam iron on most of their body parts.”

The men took firearms from their safe and ransacked the house before fleeing on foot. No arrests had been made.

Police opened a case of robbery, assault, and attempted murder.

– Caxton News Service