IVAN Pilko fears he will never see his life savings again. "Never," the 92-year-old said from the bed of his home in Springwood yesterday.
Those people are so clever.
The Croatian immigrant with dementia-like symptoms had $10,000 stolen in a callous daylight robbery near the Queen Street Mall.
Mr Pilko was robbed by two men on Monday afternoon in an apparent sting shortly after withdrawing the money from the Commonwealth Bank branch at the corner of Queen and Edward streets.
A stranger to electronic transactions, he had withdrawn the money to deposit it into another account.
While en route to that second transaction, the two men spilled a substance, reportedly tomato sauce, on Mr Pilko's shirt while he was near the Elizabeth St entrance of the Queen Street Mall.
Posing as good samaritans, the men lured him to a downstairs toilet at the nearby Sizzler restaurant and offered to help clean him up.
With one of the men pretending to tend to Mr Pilko, the other nabbed the money, which had been stored in an envelope inside a plastic bag.
The theft of the sum ndash; almost Mr Pilko's entire life savings from a long career as a bookbinder in Europe and Australia ndash; has ruined his retirement.
I worked very hard for that money, he said. I was washing my shirt .
. . and then the money is all gone.
His grandson, Steven Lipohar, who had been unaware of his grandfather's trip into the city, said he was still shaken by the theft.
Mr Lipohar pleaded with other elderly not to be in possession of large amounts of cash.
Speaking about the robbers he said: I hope that they can find another way to earn a living because the road that they're going down is a dead-end road.
Police last night released security footage of the men thought to have robbed Mr Pilko.
The first is described as being caucasian, between 175cm and 180cm tall, with a stocky build and short, dark-coloured hair. He wore dark-coloured sunglasses, a red T-shirt with a white motif on the front, blue jeans and brown shoes.
The second man has an olive, possibly Mediterranean, complexion, is between 175cm and 180cm tall, with a stocky build and short, dark-coloured hair with long sideburns. He wore a greenish, grey long-sleeved button-up collared shirt with a patch on the left shoulder, dark grey trousers and brown shoes.
Both men carried over-the-shoulder satchels.
Information to Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000.
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