Advising the Financial Advisor

Beatings by walker? Retirees get revenge
Posted Jun 24 2009, 01:26 PM by Kim Peterson

Image credit: © BrokenSphere / Wikimedia CommonsRetirees in Germany were so upset with their financial adviser that they ambushed him outside his home and beat him with their walkers, the adviser claims. Then they taped his mouth closed and hauled him into a car.

"It took them quite a while because they ran out of breath," the financial adviser, James Amburn, told the U.K.'s Daily Mail. The kidnappers ranged in age from 60 to 74.

Amburn said they eventually got him to a house, where they chained and tortured him for four days. Two retired doctors also reportedly participated.

Amburn said the group chained him, burned him with cigarettes, broke two of his ribs and talked repeatedly about their money. Apparently, they had invested in properties in Florida and lost it all.

"I told them what I had told them before, that due to market conditions, unfortunately it was gone," he told the Daily Mail.

This story -- as Amburn tells it -- just gets crazier. He convinced the group to let him send a fax to a Swiss bank asking for a money transfer, but he wrote a secret message on the fax asking for police help. Then he escaped, only to be chased down the street in a car by his elderly captors. They grabbed him and dragged him back to the house.

Finally, 40 German special commandos stormed the house. They brought a doctor to help the captors into police vans because of their infirmities, the Daily Mail reports.