Thursday, June 25, 2009

The Bavarian Over-the-Hill Gang: Justice by Zimmer frame (walker).


My thanks to TypeAy who sent me this link, which sent me here.

This could end up being a chapter in the next volume of the Absolved trilogy.

Mike
III


Suspects: Roland K. 74, seen here with his 79-year-old wife is accused of kidnapping James Amburn

First picture of kidnap gang pensioner who abducted financial adviser after he lost £2m savings

By Allan Hall

Pensioners battered a financial adviser with Zimmer frames before kidnapping and torturing him for losing £2million of their savings.

James Amburn, 56, was ambushed outside his home in Speyer, western Germany, bound with masking tape and bundled into a car boot.

‘It took them quite a while because they ran out of breath,’ said Mr Amburn, who was driven to the Bavarian lakeside home of one of the gang.

Another couple, retired doctors, joined the kidnappers in the cellar where Mr Amburn was chained and tortured for four days last week.

‘The fear of death was indescribable,’ he said. Mr Amburn was rescued when he sent a fax to release funds from a Swiss bank and scribbled a message on it for the receiver to call police.'

Mr Arnburn, 56, described how two of his kidnappers, identified only as Roland K, 74, and Willy D, 60, hit him with a Zimmer frame outside his home in Speyer, west Germany before binding him with duct tape.

He was bundled into the boot of a silver Audi saloon and driven 300 miles to the home of Roland K on the shores of Lake Chiemsee in Bavaria.

As the financial advisor, who runs investment firm Digitalglobalnet, was bundled into the cellar another couple, retired doctors Gerhard and Iris F, aged 63 and 66, arrived to assist his kidnappers.

Mr Amburn said: 'I had known these people for 25 years. I had no reason to be afraid. But as I went into my home I was jumped from the rear and struck.

'They bound me with masking tape until I looked like a mummy. It took them quite a while because they ran out of breath. When they loaded me into the car I thought I was a dead man.

'I was bleeding from my eyes, nose and my mouth. But the nightmare had only just started.'

During his confinement in an unheated cellar, Mr Amburn claims he was burned with cigarettes, beaten, had two of his ribs broken when he was hit with a chair leg and chained up 'like an animal.'

He says he was fed only two bowls of watery soup during his four days in the dungeon.
'I was led into the cellar,' recalled Mr Amburn, 'And I saw a folding bed and a WC reserved for me. They immediately went on about their money.

'I told them what I had told them before, that due to market conditions, unfortunately it was gone.

'I was struck. Again and again they threatened to kill me. The fear of death was indescribable. I never thought I would make it out alive.

'I tried to buy time, to ease the situation, but I didn’t know if night was day or day night.

'I told them that if I sold certain securities in Switzerland they could get their money and for this I had to send a fax to a bank in that country so funds could be transferred.'

They agreed and he sent a fax. But unbeknown to them, he had scribbled a message on the bottom of the paper for whoever received it to call the police.

'It was disguised as a policy which is spelled police in German,' he said.

'I wrote call police and they didn’t notice it but someone at the bank was bright enough to pick up on it.'

Allowed out of the cellar on Friday for cigarette break in the garden while the kidnappers waited on their loot, Mr Amburn attempted to escape over the wall.
In the pouring rain he ran down the street pursued by his captors in the Audi A8 they had used to transport him to the house.

Several people saw him but Roland K shouted: 'He’s a burglar!'

He was then dragged back to the cellar where he sustained several broken ribs as a 'punishment' for trying to escape.

Shortly afterwards, the Swiss bank telephoned police in Germany and an armed team of special SEK commandos was scrambled and the house was stormed in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Forty armed officers rescued Mr Amburn who was naked except for his underwear.
A physician had to be on hand to help his captors into police vans because of their various infirmities.

They now face up to 15 years in jail each for illegal hostage taking, torture and grievous bodily harm.

Chief public prosecutor Volker Ziegler said: 'They were angry because they invested money in properties in Florida and he lost it all.

'This was black money - they hadn’t declared it to the revenue authorities in Germany.'

Mr Amburn, who needed hospital treatment for his injuries before being allowed home, added: 'They threatened me with the Russian mafia too. I am not sure I feel all that safe even though they are behind bars.'


Ordeal: James Arnburn was held at a house by Lake Chiemsee, Germany (above)

5 comments:

Crustyrusty said...

I've HAD old folks beat me with their walkers. It's painful, though not as bad as getting your toes run over by a motorizwd wheelchair....

Anonymous said...

This is a joke, right? I mean, seriously. Either someone has too much time on their hands, and a WICKED sense of humor -- OR -- These old folk have a keen sense of justice. They gave all their extra money to this "investor". And he didn't even have the common sense to at least save the capital, even if he couldn't save the interest. He deserved his treatment.
And besides all that, think of the embarrassment. Here's this younger, stronger man, being kidnapped & B**h-slapped around by a bunch of geriatrics.

Fact or fiction, this is TOO funny!
B Woodman
SSG (Ret) US Army
III

Anonymous said...

I don't condone torture, but

"'They bound me with masking tape until I looked like a mummy. It took them quite a while because they ran out of breath."

is FUNNY! The Over-The-Hill Gang strikes!

ParaPacem said...

I agree - if it IS for real ( and not an "Onion.com" headline story - then their only mistake was in not forcing him to sign over everything he owned to them - or lynching him.

pdxr13 said...

When the law breaks down, vigilante justice is the best that we can hope for. When engaging a "registered/licensed financial adviser" gives the same result to a lifetime of savings as the Made-Off Gang, a little trunk storage and minor harm ("torture") is something people with fiduciary responsibility ought to consider as a possible result of their poor job performance.

This is a testimonial for owning a bolted-down/cast-in-place concealed safe filled with guns/ammo and precious metals. Those things never require pointless revenge because of "market conditions".

Start with the basics of ballast in your safe: US Jefferson Nickels in rolls, packed $194 per M-60 ammo can. Nickels in ammo cans are heavier than loaded .308Win, but manageable as a careful one-arm lift.

Cheers.