Family 'numb' after home invasion leaves man injured and stranded by roadside

Beth Mingo said she was "numb" after her 68-year-old father told her what happened to him Thursday morning at his home in Dean, N.S.

He was awoken in a home invasion, forced to get into his truck and later forced out of his truck along Highway 289 in Upper Stewiacke.

"I was kind of numb after he told me the whole story," said Mingo. "Shock, fear ... I asked him if he knew who it was [and] he said he didn't recognize them, he'd never seen them before.

"It's still kind of surreal. Things like that don't happen out in the middle of nowhere."

Home invasion, theft

Mingo said she found out something had happened after a neighbour of her father called her to ask why the RCMP were parked there.

Nova Scotia RCMP said the incident was reported at 4:13 a.m. on Thursday.

Police say the same man was in a home in Dean, a small community northeast of Middle Musquodoboit, and was awoken by another man who had broken in.

"The suspect then forced the victim into the victim's own vehicle," policed say in the release. "The suspect threatened the victim with a knife.

"A woman was also waiting outside the home and all three individuals left in the victim's truck."

By the time the three reached Colchester County, police said one of the suspects put his foot on the brake as the victim was driving.

"There was a struggle and the victim sustained cuts to his hands and face," police say in the release. "The victim was shoved out of the vehicle and left on the side of the road as the suspects left with his truck."

Mingo said a man saw her father trying to wave down cars on the road and stopped to help.

"He saw dad, stopped, called the ambulance and waited there with him until an ambulance arrived," Mingo said. "They actually had two show up. And from there, the ambulance checked him over and took him into Truro hospital."

She said she touched base with the man who stopped for her father, someone her father knew, and thanked him.

"All he said was he didn't consider himself a hero, he just hoped someone would do the same for him if it was him in that situation," Mingo said.

"He saved my father's life. If he hadn't have stopped, who knows how long it would be before another vehicle pulled over."

Mingo said her father is still shaken up from the incident.

"He's got quite a few really bad bruises. There was a knife involved in the situation ... it seems as though the blade came out and made contact with his hand because there are three fingers on his left hand that all have stitches in them and were cut up pretty bad."

Police searching for truck

Several RCMP detachments were notified of the attack and theft in an attempt to find the truck. 

"Police did receive a tip that the suspect vehicle was spotted later on at a service station in Sackville, N.B. Their direction of travel is not known," police say in the release.

The truck is a 2009 black Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck. It has a Nova Scotia licence plate: CNT 832.

The pickup truck has an extended cab, with a tool box in the back and silver bed rails on each side.

Tips on the incident can be shared with police at 1-800-803-RCMP and anonymous tips can be shared through Nova Scotia Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.

'Vehicles are replaceable, lives are not'

Mingo said she wants those involved to know the attack and theft was unnecessary.

"There was no call for anything like this to happen. My father is a kind-hearted, loving individual who would never do anything to anyone. If they wanted to steal a vehicle, they should have just stole a vehicle," Mingo said. 

"There was no need to do what they did. Vehicles are replaceable, lives are not."