Senior citizen punched 15 times at Dutch supermarket for being “too slow”

A 68-year-old Rotterdam man was attacked at a Rotterdam Albert Heijn supermarket. His offense? Fumbling with his debit card for too long.

The incident took place a day after Christmas when the Rotterdam artist stood at the Albert Heijn Nieuwe Binnenweg service counter. This set off a brutal chain of events.

The customer behind him grew impatient as the man struggled with his payment method.

The waiting customer then snatched the senior citizen’s card, threw it on the ground, and tried to push through, reports the AD.

In defence, the older man pushed the impatient customer away.

The impatient customer’s friend, Mohammed A., who was watching a few metres away, stepped in.

The 26-year-old ran at the older man and attacked him from behind, striking him 15 times with a closed fist.

When the older man tried to fight back, the two attackers pushed him to the ground and kicked his head several times.

Several bystanders intervened, finally stopping the vicious attack.

Court case

“I’ve seen the [security footage] a few times and I’m still shocked,” said the prosecutor of the case in court this week.

“We see two young men who clearly had the intention to completely brutalize the victim. They went completely crazy. Bizarre.”

Mohammed says he “doesn’t know where all that anger came from” and admits he’d had a few drinks beforehand. He claimed he thought his friend needed support.

“I saw that man lunging sharply at my friend, and I came to help. It wasn’t until he was on the ground that I noticed it was an old, grown man. If I had seen that before, I would have spoken to him.”

“I reacted disproportionately. I would like to apologize for that.”

Result of the case

The judge doesn’t take long to decide: Mohammed is convicted and receives 150 days in prison, 46 days of which are conditional.

The judge determined that the violence surpassed all limits, stating, “The gentleman was badly beaten and actually didn’t stand a chance.”

Mohammend’s friend is yet to appear in court.

The victim will receive €6000 in damages. Part of that will go toward repairing a tooth crown that was broken during the attack.

After the attack, the Rotterdammer was unable to work and has been unable to pay for the dental work.

The victim now suffers from eye problems, including an inability to perceive depth. The artist has become a former artist.

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Feature Image: Donald Trung Quoc Don (Chữ Hán: 徵國單)/Wikimedia Commons/CC4.0 (Cropped)