Man, 79, blindfolded, tortured, robbed in two-hour ordeal

A 79-year-old man tortured by home invaders who poured boiling water over his legs at his Menlyn Maine residence, said this week the ordeal lasted for two hours.

Peter Treichel said he was home alone last Thursday when two men entered his house and overpowered, attacked and tortured him.

He was taken to the Life Wilgers Hospital where he received 32 stitches for multiple wounds to his head. He was also treated for high blood pressure.

Treichel said he was editing photos and videos when, at around 10pm, he decided to call it a night. He changed into his pyjamas before heading back to the living room where he opened the sliding door slightly to get some fresh air.

“About five minutes later, two men appeared from behind the curtain and grabbed a flower vase and hit me over the head from behind. I was bleeding like hell.”

Treichel put up a fight with the smaller-built attacker but the second one grabbed him by the neck and strangled him with a cable. “I just held my neck stiff as it felt like he was trying to break it.”

He screamed for help but they stuffed a cloth in his mouth.

The attackers kept asking

Treichel about his safe and the whereabouts of his wife.

“The one attacker stood on my neck for what felt like 30 seconds. They then hit me so much I had no choice but to tell them. They said if I did not show them where the safe was, they were going to kill me.”

Treichel said the men pushed him blindfolded upstairs, still asking about his wife. He stuck to the story of her being out of town with her daughter. She was at the time sleeping in the shop on the property.

The men then kicked Treichel

down the stairs for him to go and fetch the key to the safe. Blindfolded, Treichel somehow got hold of the panic button with his tied hands which he slid into his pyjama pants. After the attackers attempted to break the safe from the wall, they asked Treichel for a screwdriver. He gave them a wood shaver. “At this point, I was willing to give up the safe instead of my life.” One man went downstairs to boil a kettle and returned to pour the boiling water over Treichel’s leg. They threatened to cut off his

I held my neck stiff ... it felt like he wanted to break it

finger as they could not remove his gold wedding ring. He remove it by spitting on his hand.

The men took the safe downstairs and pushed the blindfolded Treichel, down the stairs.

They tied him up again and wedged him underneath the kitchen table with a chair before fleeing with the safe, cash, appliances, a cellphone, liquor and other items. “They gave me a last kick and said they were coming back to kill me.”

Between last year June and November, the couple’s property was broken into eight times. Treichel is recovering well. No arrests have been made yet. – Caxton News Service