Paul Miller found himself trapped in a room while thieves—men he befriended on Facebook and invited over to play video games—ransacked his parents’ house.
Miller, who is wheelchair-bound due to his cerebral palsy, said two men came to his parents’ house in Lancashire, England, and stole more $19,000 worth of goods. One man sequestered Miller while the other man stole the family’s jewelry, cash, an iPad, and an iPod.
Miller’s mother and stepfather returned home to find him so terrified that he was taken to the hospital.
His mother, Lorraine Miller, said her son talked to the thieves for a few weeks and said he commonly uses Facebook to make friends since they live in a remote city.
“He’d been talking to two lads from Kirkby and while we were out shopping, he asked if they wanted to come round and play on the PlayStation with him,” she told the Daily Mail.
When the men entered the house, one of the thieves asked Miller, 28, to use the bathroom as a ploy to distract him.
“Paul could hear him walking upstairs, even though the bathroom is next door to his room,” said his mother. “When Paul asked the other one what he was doing, he kept Paul in the room and wouldn’t let him out.”
The ordeal lasted about 10 minutes; the crooks used a taxi as a getaway vehicle. The mother said the thieves knew her son was alone and had a disability.
Since the traumatic event happened on Sept. 20, Miller’s parents said his personality had changed.
“He won’t go out unless we’re with him and he doesn’t want to be in the house or on his own,” she said. “It has changed his personality. His confidence is gone.”
A 19-year-old male has been arrested and bailed in connection with the robbery, but Lancashire Police are still looking for information.
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