Good deed ends in midnight home invasion for 84-year-old

Wally Thurston

Two years ago Wally Thurston gave a stranger a bed for the night.

This week she returned to the 84-year-old's Opotiki home, but it wasn't to say thanks.

She broke into his home with a male accomplice and ripped the blankets off Mr Thurston.

In pain from a recent hip operation, he could do little as the pair hid his crutches and blindfolded him. He was threatened with a knife. Before they left, the pair threatened to kill him.

They stole cash and Mr Thurston's car keys, and forced him to sign a cheque.

The ordeal began at 7pm on Saturday when he answered a knock at his front door.

The woman asked if he remembered her and said she wanted to use the telephone.

"Two years ago she had turned up at my house and begged me for a bed for the night and I had let her in," Mr Thurston said.

"When I woke in the morning my wallet had been cleaned out and a hunting knife taken."

This time, Mr Thurston told her she could not use the phone and shut the door. Half an hour later a man came to the door.

Mr Thurston refused to let him in.

About midnight, the pair returned and broke in through a bedroom window.

"They came into my bedroom and ripped the blankets off me, then pointed a knife in my direction and demanded money."

His hands and feet were bound and he was blindfolded and told to lie on his bed.

"I am still recovering from a hip operation that I had three weeks ago and I was in too much pain to lie down so I told them I would have to sit on the edge of the bed."

The pair took Mr Thurston's crutches and put them in another room.

"They found my wallet, the small amount of cash I had in the house and my car keys but then demanded I give them my credit cards.

"The man started ranting and raving when I told him I don't have credit cards," Mr Thurston said.

The pair found a chequebook and demanded Mr Thurston sign a cheque.

"Although I was pretty calm through the whole thing and did as I was told, I have to admit my hand was shaking so much the signature would have been completely illegible.

When the pair left he painfully made his way to the lounge, opened a sliding door and "began yelling at the top of my lungs".

Mr Thurston's nephew Gordon Rippey is now staying with the 84-year-old. Mr Rippey was angry about the attack on Mr Thurston but said he was "a tough old stick".

"He was in town yesterday morning filling out all of the forms to get a new driver's licence and do a spot of grocery shopping," Mr Rippey said.

Police said the offenders tried to stop Mr Thurston from raising the alarm by cutting telephone wires.

They want information about a couple who tried to book into a Te Kaha motel on Monday afternoon. The woman was said to be of medium build and aged 35 to 40. The man was 40 to 45, thickset and clean-shaven with dark hair. Both were about 1.70m to 1.75m tall, and believed to be Maori.

- DAILY POST (ROTORUA)