Police describe the attack on an 85-year-old woman as cowardly and gutless.
At about 12:30pm yesterday she was robbed of her handbag and contents, as she walked up the side of her house. Inside the bag was travellers cheques and Euro dollars worth approximately seven thousand NZ dollars. The money and cheques had just been collected from the ASB Bank at the Northcote Shopping Centre.
Anya Pootjes had just returned home from the bank with her son and was walking towards the rear of her house, with the use of her walking frame, when the offender attacked her from behind.
The offender pushed her face first into the concrete path. She received a fractured nose, facial bruising, a broken wrist and bruising to her fingers. She is in North Shore Hospital
Acting Detective Sergeant Scott Armstrong says, "This is a cowardly and gutless attack on an elderly woman who relies on a walking frame to move. The offender may well have followed her from the ASB bank to her house and Police are interested in any sightings of a late eighties red BMW or similar shaped vehicle seen round the Northcote Shopping Centre."
After the attack the offender ran from the woman’s house on College Road to a waiting vehicle, parked approximately 50 metres into Cadness Street. An associate drove him from the scene down Cadness Street away from College Road. The getaway vehicle was a red BMW, late 80's model.
The offender is described as a male polynesian or maori, aged in his twenties or thirties. He was 5'10-6' tall and solid build. He was reasonably tidy in dress and appearance.
Any information to Acting Det/Sgt Scott Armstrong, Takapuna Police, 488 6200
Issued by
Jayson Rhodes
Communications Manager
North Shore/Waitakere/Rodney Police District
4889 758 or 027 281 0271