Elderly man shoved and terrorised by youths in home invasion

File photo / NZ Herald

An 82-year-old man lay on his lounge floor frightened he would be bashed on the head after being shoved to the ground with a broom handle when two teenagers barged into his home demanding cash.

Jack Morrissey was putting a DVD on in his bedroom when he heard a knock at the front door of his Wainuiomata home about 8pm on Tuesday. Initially the two youths at the door, aged between 15 and 17, asked where a woman known to Mr Morrissey was.

But at a point in the conversation Mr Morrissey, a former police worker, knew "it wasn't going to be good".

"The worst thing I ever did was open the door," he said as he recovered from the attack at his home yesterday.

Mr Morrissey had previously helped the young woman - whom the teenagers also knew - when she had lived next door.

He would give her and her sisters pocket money for doing odd jobs around the house.

Mr Morrissey said there was no doubt that his money was the "number one" thing the youths were after.

"That's what the operation was," he said.

The teens then barged past Mr Morrissey, knocking him to the ground.

As he fell he hit a coffee table, cutting his arm and knee.

The youths repeatedly asked where his money and wallet were.

Mr Morrissey offered the pair $100 if they left him alone, but eventually they found his wallet and took about $400.

Mr Morrissey wears a St John medical alarm and activated it as he lay on his lounge floor.

"I was frightened they would hit me on the head. It was all a sort of blurry panic," he said.

His son, who lives nearby, was able to get to Mr Morrissey shortly after the teens fled after being contacted by St John.

Mr Morrissey, who has poor eyesight, said he could not clearly see the pair but said one was wearing a white shoe and a black shoe. APNZ