Opotiki police are hunting for a couple after an 84-year-old man was subjected to a terrifying knifepoint robbery in his home.
The victim, who lives alone, was woken by a man holding a knife to his throat just after midnight on Sunday.
Police said the couple tied up the man
up in his bedroom.
They demanded cash, credit cards and signed cheques before escaping with a small amount of money and keys to the victim's house and car.
The car key was later found on the street.
Detective Constable Brent Andersen said the pair went to extreme lengths to prevent the victim raising the alarm, cutting two telephone cords and moving crutches he had needed since a recent hip operation.
He said the elderly man was recovering well from his ordeal with the help of Victim Support and others, but was not up to speaking publicly.
The man did not know the pair who robbed him, but a woman and then a man had knocked on his door earlier in the evening asking to use the telephone.
Opotiki police had received several reports of a suspicious woman asking to use people's phones in the last week.
The male suspect was described as a thick-set Maori, aged 40-45, about 173cm tall, clean-shaven with dark hair.
The woman was said to be a Maori of medium build, aged 35-40, and about the same height as the man.
Police were interested in sightings of a couple who tried to book into a motel in Te Kaha, east of Opotiki, without any money on Monday afternoon.
"It's a reasonable possibility that it's the people we're interested in," Mr Andersen said.
Police also wanted to hear from the person who handed the victim's car key in at Opotiki station.
