| The secretary of the city’s Pensioners Forum, Gordon Samson, said older people are concerned about the frequency of the mugging attacks and the lack of arrests.
“It’s time somebody was apprehended,” said Mr Samson.
An elderly Dundee woman became the second pensioner in recent weeks to be robbed in the Hilltown area during daylight.
Moira Kelly (74), who walks with the aid of a zimmer and has several health problems, was targeted as she crossed the road between North Street and Strathmartine Road around 10.30am yesterday.
Her attacker, who snatched her purse from her handbag, had first spotted her as she shopped in a nearby newsagent and had even held the door open for her as she left the shop.
“The police say statistics and evidence show we shouldn’t be alarmed. But you have got to be concerned with regards the frequency of this happening,” said Mr Samson.
“Older people are being targeted so that’s a concern and I dare say questions will be raised with the police. To these individuals it’s a real fear.”
Mr Samson described the people who are targeting pensioners as “cowardly”.
“They might be opportunistic, but how many people have been apprehended?” he added,
“The police say it’s not a pattern. They say these are random incidences, but people in the Hilltown area are concerned. It’s about time somebody was apprehended.”
Speaking about the latest attack he added, “The attacker held the door open for the woman. Surely the shopkeeper or somebody in the shop must have seen this person?”
A spokeswoman for Age Concern Scotland described such attacks as “disgusting and cowardly”.
She also urged anyone who is concerned about picking up their pension to think about going to the post office in groups or with a friend or family member.
“Despite the serious consequences for the individual victims of these attacks, they do seem to be isolated, opportunistic incidences,” she said.Meanwhile, a climate of fear is gripping pensioners in the Hilltown, with some refusing to leave the house, some travelling in groups of three or four for safety, and others resorting to wearing their handbags underneath their coats (writes Graeme Bletcher).
This morning, elderly people in the area were reacting to the news of the latest attack — on 74-year-old Moira Kelly.
Most have blamed “junkies” for the recent spate of daylight robberies and assaults, as the drug problem in the Hilltown area spirals further “out of control”.
Pensioner Katherine Middleton, who the Tele spoke to as she waited for the bus near the site of yesterday’s attack, claimed the victim is not alone in being afraid to leave the house.
She said, “There’s is just no way I would go out at night at all now.
“I only leave home with my family or friends because I am frightened what might happen.
“We all come out in groups of two or three because we just don’t feel safe by ourselves.”
Margaret Muir, who works in Kenny’s grocery store, has seen the number of attacks rise steadily over the last year and is sure they are all linked to drugs.
She said, “It’s all to do with drugs and there has been a couple of times it has happened now in the past three or four weeks.
“It is just been getting worse and worse recently and especially over the last few years.
“But the police have their hands tied because they can only lock them up then they just get straight back out again.
“It is absolutely horrendous to think older people are scared to go out in broad daylight.”
Elizabeth Dow is a shop assistant in the Premier convenience store where it is thought the cowardly thug who robbed Mrs Kelly first spotted her. She said, “We have got to get a police presence around here — it is absolutely pathetic.”
“You have got a lot of older people coming from the post office with a lot of money and they are getting targeted all the time.
“We had one old lady coming the other day with a big bulge under her coat and she was actually carrying her handbag under her jacket because she was so scared she would be attacked.
“The chemist down the road supplies the drug addicts with methadone at 9am and it seems it is around that time things keep happening.”
Pensioner John Clark said the Hilltown area used to be a safe place to live but has “gone downhill” in the last few months.
He added, “All the young ones are on the drugs and they are desperate for money.
“All the older people think they are going to be robbed and are afraid.” |
