LACROSSE, Wis. – An 84-year-old man told police he was battered and locked in his basement by assailants who demanded money and a PIN for his bank card. The man had a nose wound, a bruised chin, abrasions on his ears and a cut on his head but otherwise was OK if not unsettled. He identified two of the assailants as a man and his girlfriend, whom he had allowed to stay at his house until they found jobs. This was in the 1400 block of South Sixth Street South in La Crosse. A second man later showed up and joined the couple, he said. The man told investigators that he’d been battered and locked in his basement. The assailants demanded money and a PIN for his bank card. The man’s account of the weekend assault was horrific:
> He was tied him up and gagged with a sock, and at one point threatened with decapitation with a decorative saw inside the house.
> He was taken into his basement through a trap door in the pantry.
> When he managed to escape his bonds, the door to exit was weighed down and he couldn’t get out, but he then broke a window and climbed out.
> As he was struggling to escape, two of the assailants came down basement. He assumed he was going to be killed.
> In an odd twist, these two apologized for what “other people” had done and offered to help clean up the mess in the house.
> They then ordered him to write them a check for $4,000, which he did.
> They drove off in his car.
> Because his cellphone had been smashed, the man went to a neighbor’s place, called his bank to cancel the $4,000 check, and called police.
The man told police that one of he attacker had done handywork on his rental properties some years earlier.