Hull man describes beating, robbery

Posted: Wednesday, July 07, 2010

A 47-year-old Hull man recalled that shortly after 11 p.m. June 24, he pulled off his eyeglasses, turned on his new TV and climbed into bed to relax. Soon there was a knock at the door.

Wayne Ford
Wayne Ford

"I was a musician for a lot of years. I've fought. I've been shot at. I was a repo man. But never this," he said June 30 as he sat on a couch in a home outside Madison County, too unnerved by the crime that happened six days earlier to return to his own residence.

The man, who asked that his name not be used because he doesn't know his attackers' identity, described what happened.

Upon hearing the late-night knock at the back door, the man said he got his 12-gauge shotgun, walked to the door, racked a shell and said, "I've got a gun. Who is it?"

"The girl gave a name I didn't recognize. She gave me the name of a friend of mine - his first name. And she said, 'He sent me down here. We're having car trouble.' I said, 'What's his last name?' There was a pause, and she gave me his last name."

"I tried to turn on the porch light. And they had unscrewed the bulb so I couldn't see. Red flags were going off. I should have dialed 911, but I opened the door," he said.

The woman rushed into the small room, which he used as the laundry room, and they struggled over the shotgun. The man, who has had several back surgeries and suffers from an incurable syndrome that causes body pain, said he tried a couple of martial arts tricks he had seen on TV.

"I punched her in the throat, and I tried a leg sweep to take her down," he said. "She reached behind her back and pulled out an automatic handgun and began to pistol-whip me in the head."

"I don't know if you've ever been hit in the head, but you start seeing stars," he said, adding that he let the shotgun go, and she forced him into the bedroom and told him to lie face-down on the bed.

"At first she put a pillow on the back of my head, and I thought that was to muffle the shot," he said. "Then she took it off and said, 'Are you going to cooperate?' "

The man said he was ordered to look away, but he got a glance at a man who entered his home.

"Believe this or not - he was dressed as a ninja," he said. "A Caucasian male. Tall, white. I saw only his eyes. It was ridiculous, childish, but yet quite effective in covering his identity." He thinks a third person, probably another man, also entered the house.

The woman was described as white, about 5 feet 6 inches tall, about 135 pounds, athletically built and tan. She had blond hair braided in a shoulder-length ponytail and wore a white tank top, jeans and a ballcap.

"She was in command and knew what she was doing. I wouldn't be surprised if she had done it one or more times before," said the man, explaining he was hog-tied with his belt and some bungee cords they found in his bedroom.

The robbers stole a knife collection, a video camera, the shotgun, some medication, his wallet, and a TV.

"I only had the TV for a couple of weeks. It was my first HDTV. When I saw they stole that - that hurt almost as bad as anything else," he said.

The robbers were basically quiet as they loaded their loot, then the woman demanded his cell phone, according to the man.

"At first I lied and said I didn't have a cell phone, but a crack to the head again with the pistol and I told her, 'It's on the coffee table,' " he said.

The man said he laid on the bed and heard what sounded like them pushing their vehicle out of his driveway over the gravel. He guessed it was so he wouldn't know when they left. He said he managed to free himself and walked to a neighbor's house for help. They wouldn't come to the door, so with the help of a walking cane and flashlight, he walked to a nearby convenience store for help. An off-duty officer at the store called 911.

As he recalled the attack, the man said he had just returned from seeing a doctor for a follow-up visit.

"He said when you get beaten on the head like that, it releases some sort of stress hormones and makes you ache all over," the man said, adding that he also has been scheduled for a CT scan.

For days after the robbery, the man said he was "unsettled and shaking." But now he has come to terms with being attacked in his own home.

"I'm at peace," he said, his voice cracked with emotion.

Madison County sheriff's investigator Douglas Martin has been assigned to investigate the crime.

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