Gang threaten pensioner with knife for a few pounds

The elderly man, whose savings were to pay for heating, electricity bill and rent over Christmas, called the men ‘scumbags’.

The man was in his Nettlehill Road home, where he had lived for 43 years, last Thursday night and had just finished watching Eastenders and sat down to listen to the radio.

He heard a thump and at first thought it was a neighbour’s door banging.

He went upstairs and looked outside to see a silver car parked outside his house. But as he came back down the stairs his front door was burst open.

He thinks the gang used a screwdriver to force open the door.

One of the men grabbed him and dragged him into the sitting room where they threw him onto a chair.

Even though the elderly victim pretended to be suffering from a heart complaint the robber kept his knee on man’s ribs and ordered him to keep quiet and not to move.

Meanwhile the two accomplices ran upstairs into the bedrooms and completely ransacked them. They then went into the sitting room where the householder was being held and began rummaging through the drawers in search of more money.

“My elderly mother went into a care home about six years ago and if she had still lived here she would have been sitting on a chair in the sitting room. If she had seen that commotion it would have totally destroyed her” the man said.

“I kept telling them I had a heart condition but he just ignored me and told me to shut up. I couldn’t do anything. You daren’t tackle them boys - I’d have been for it. The man just said to me ‘if you move, I’ll give it to you’ - so what could I do?”

He said the men, who were disguised with gloves and hankies over their faces, warned him not to ring the police.

“I have lived here for 43 years and I have never had anything like this happen to me before,” he said.

“I was OK during the ordeal but I felt a little nervous afterwards. I just don’t know why they targeted me. Maybe I was seen as vulnerable. I don’t know. That money was to pay for bills over Christmas. What lengths some people would go to get money. I pity them.”

Just hours earlier, another elderly man was robbed at his Dunmore Drive home in the Skegoneill area of north Belfast.

Three men broke into the property and escaped. Police are investigating a possible link between the two aggravated burglaries.

Then on Monday another elderly man was left badly shaken after an armed robbery at his Lisburn home.

The three robbers entered the house in the Drumbo Road area shortly after 10pm while the 80-year-old man was inside.

One of the men was carrying an iron bar and it is believed the gang stole cash. The pensioner was not injured during the robbery.

Local Councillor Jennifer Coulter condemned those involved in the robbery.

“I am absolutely appalled at this incident. It is devastating to think that someone was subjected to an ordeal like this” she said. “People should be able to feel safe in their home and this was a despicable incident. I would appeal to anyone who has any information on this to contact police.”