Ernest McCain, an 83-year-old veteran from Brooklyn, N.Y., was attacked and robbed by another man in his 60s outside a senior center in the New York City borough’s Crown Heights section Monday afternoon, NBC New York reports.
McCain said he was leaving the senior center when a stranger came up to him and accused him of stealing from him.
“He said, ‘Give me your money,’” McCain said. “I said, ‘I ain’t got no money.’ He said, ‘Let me search you.’ I said, ‘No, you don’t search me, buddy.’”
Police say the suspect punched McCain in the head and stole the cellphone McCain’s daughter had just given him.
“He grabbed me and my coat and pulled the whole pocket off, tore my coat and everything,” McCain added.
The elderly vet was released from the hospital Tuesday and says he is doing OK but believes that his attacker is dangerous.
“I don’t know what he was thinking,” he said.
The suspect is described as a man around the age of 65, 6 feet tall and 200 pounds. He was last seen wearing a multicolored winter knit hat and a black coat with light-colored sleeves, black pants and tan boots.
Read more at NBC New York.