A 77-year-old Alexandra woman got the shock of her life when she was accosted by a group of boys in the middle of town on Tuesday morning.
The woman, who asked not to be identified, said she was walking up Tarbert St towards Ranui Home and Hospital about 10.45am, when five boys she believed to be 10 years old gathered around her on the pavement.
"It gave me one hell of a fright," she said.
She was walking with the aid of a wheeled frame, on her way home to Ranui from the library.
"I met these five kids and before I could do anything they were all around me. One grabbed my walking frame and said he was going to smash it into the gutter.
"I said like hell he was, as they tried to tug it away from me. I got my dander up and gave him a kick in the bum," she said.
Four of the youths ran away as a red vehicle pulled up beside the woman and main offender, after which a man and woman got out of the car and took control.
"The man grabbed the boy by the scruff of the neck and said to the woman 'Take the car and meet me at the cop shop'.
The woman got in the car and turned it around while the man marched this kid down the street; and that was the last I saw of them," the woman said.
She was not injured, but had to sit down for a few minutes for her legs to stop shaking before resuming her walk.
"I thought `what are they going to be like when they're 17?"' she said.
Police were not initially told about the incident as the man and woman did not take the boy to the police station.
Constable Dave Greaves, of Alexandra, said a Ranui employee phoned police to find out what had happened in relation to the incident.
The victim did not know the couple, but had been thinking of them since.
"I wonder whether they knew that boy, or if he was their child," she said.
Const Greaves urged anyone who may have witnessed the incident, which occurred in front of Alexandra's Masonic hall, to contact police.
"We are appealing to anyone who may be able to assist us, including the couple in the red car," he said.
