Groups seek to help veteran held as motel hostage for years

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Groups seek to help veteran held as motel hostage for years

Chris Carola, Associated Press

Updated 9:10 pm, Monday, July 25, 2016


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Photo: AP

In this frame grab from a July 19, 2016 video, provided by WABC-TV in New York, David McLellan, an 81-year-old Navy veteran and retired auto plant worker, sits on a bed as he is questioned after being discovered in a Highlands, N.Y., motel room where authorities say he was held hostage for four years by a man who stole his benefit checks. Last Tuesday, police arrested his 43-year-old neighbor at the motel where both men lived and charged the man with grand larceny, menacing and endangering the welfare of an incompetent person, and veterans' organizations have since reached out to help McLellan, a Korean War-era veteran who had shown signs of dementia. (WABC-TV in New York via AP)
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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Veterans' organizations have reached out to help a Korean War-era veteran who authorities say was held hostage in a motel room for four years by a man who stole his benefit checks.

Groups in New York, Ohio and Virginia have offered assistance to David McLellan, an 81-year-old Navy veteran and retired auto plant worker, said Highlands police Detective Joseph Cornetta.

Last week, police arrested 43-year-old Perry Coniglio at the motel where both men lived and charged him with grand larceny, menacing and endangering the welfare of an incompetent person.

Coniglio used "brute force and intimidation" to get McLellan to hand over monthly Ford Motor Co. pension and Social Security checks totaling several thousand dollars, police said. He also is accused of selling McLellan's vehicle and keeping the proceeds after telling the buyers that he was the older man's guardian.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Groups-reach-out-to-help-veteran-81-held-8412010.php

[niyad]

1. I know what should happen to those who did this. . .

[alfredo]

2. What a scumbag.

[NBachers]

3. I can't dwell on the violence and pain I want inflicted on Perry Coniglio- but I hope it happens

[Midnight Writer]

4. This is not an isolated case. And it is not just veterans.

I worked years ago for a Federal Agency that handled Social Security, SSI, Welfare, food stamps, and saw many times the family of the truly needing fighting (often physically and violently) right there in our office over who gets Grandma's check. Grandma (or whatever aged person often with diminished faculties) had no say or power in the relationship with their care givers.