Baltimore County police are searching for two men who they say severely beat and robbed an 83-year-old man inside his Woodlawn home yesterday morning.
The victim, Thomas Getzendanner, "was awakened by people coming through a window" about midnight, said Cpl. Vickie Warehime, a police spokeswoman. Getzendanner lives in the 2000 block of Oak Drive.
The men tied up Getzendanner and beat him in the head and face, police said. He was taken to Sinai Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition yesterday.
Getzendanner was found by a neighbor who was walking his dog around 5:30 a.m. and noticed a light on inside the house.
"I check on him every day just to make sure he is all right," said Jacob France Jr., 70, of the 1900 block of Oak Drive. "I saw a stepladder near the window and I knew something was wrong."
France entered the house and said he found Getzendanner tied and beaten inside the first-floor bedroom. The home was ransacked, he said, with drawers thrown about and a shotgun from the victim's collection lying on the kitchen floor.
Police said that when France called out to his neighbor, Getzendanner replied: "Help, I've been robbed."
Warehime said police were trying to determine what was stolen. "We do know that they took a phone receiver so [the victim] was not able to call police."
France said he ran home, called police, then returned to Getzendanner's house and untied him.
France, who was the victim of a home-invasion robbery 3 1/2 years ago, said several elderly residents on Oak Drive check on one another.
"I have three or four neighbors I check on," he said.