The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: June 28, 2009

Official News page 5


REAL LIFE NEWS: GERMAN PENSIONERS TORTURE FINANCIAL ADVISER

by Hazed

The financial crisis has taken its toll on many people, but a gang of German oldies reacted in a very extreme way recently - they kidnapped and tortured the financial adviser who had caused them to lose their savings.

German-American James Amburn, 56, had advised them to invest $4m in a Florida property investment scheme. They lost the lot and were not best pleased to be out of pocket. Last week, on Tuesday, two of the pensioners attacked him outside his home in Speyer, Germany, with a zimmer frame. The pair, aged 60 and 74, bound him with tape and shoved him into the trunk of their car. He reported later that "it took them quite a while because they ran out of breath."

The kidnappers drove 300 miles to a house in Bavaria where they imprisoned Amburn in the cellar. At this point, two more members of the "Geritol gang" - that's what police named them - turned up: two retired doctors aged 63 and 66. Now the torture began. They hit Amburn and threatened to kill him, all the while going on about their lost money. Amburn claims they burned him with cigarettes and hit him with a chair leg, breaking his ribs.

The torture ended several days later on Friday when he told his captors he could sell some securities in Switzerland to raise cash. The brutal pensioners agreed to allow him to fax his bank, but he managed to disguise a plea for help in the message.

Amburn wasn't sure this hidden message in the fax would work, so he made a break for it when he was let out of the cellar for a cigarette break - but the Geritol Gang pursued him in their car, and managed to persuade passers-by to recapture the finance man by shouting out, "He's a burglar."

Finally, on Sunday, someone in the Swiss bank spotted the smuggled message in the fax, and 40 armed police stormed the house and released poor Amburn.

The members of the Geritol Gang have been arrested and face up to 15 years in prison for illegal hostage taking, torture and grievous bodily harm.

Wow. What a story! I can just see this being made into a Hollywood movie... except that people would find it too unbelievable!


Fed2 Star index Previous issues Fed 2 home page