At about 2:30 a.m. Friday, a buzzer rang at the Northcote Manor retirement home. The noise roused Charlie Squires – known as the ‘Jam Man’ for the preserves he sells at charity events.
Squires descended the elevator. At the door stood a woman in her 30s, he recalls. She said she needed to visit her grandmother, and asked him to let her in. Squires, aged 90, opened the door. He led the woman up to what she said was her grandmother’s apartment.
She said she got the room number wrong, and he took her back down to the lobby. But when he turned his back, he said, the woman grabbed him.
“She got me down to the floor,” he said. “She tried to kick me in the knackers and she kicked me in the leg. I have bad legs right now.”
During the scuffle, Squires said, his glasses flew off and broke. He left blood on the floor. But he managed to fight back a little, and even landed one blow.
The woman took off with his wallet, Squires told the Daily Herald, leaving him with “a few little cuts and a black eye.” The wallet contained about $130 and his driver’s license and legion card. It’s the second time he said he’s experienced a theft in recent years.
For more on this story, see the April 1 print or e-edition of the Daily Herald.
