{"id":6429,"date":"2020-05-07T12:09:03","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T12:09:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=6429"},"modified":"2020-05-07T12:09:03","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T12:09:03","slug":"homeless-man-robbed-and-assaulted-near-cessnock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/05\/07\/homeless-man-robbed-and-assaulted-near-cessnock\/","title":{"rendered":"Homeless man robbed and assaulted near Cessnock"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Police are appealing for public assistance after a homeless man was assaulted and robbed in the Hunter region.<br \/>\nShortly after 5am yesterday (Wednesday 6 May 2020), police have been told a 45-year-old man was asleep in a tent along the Elcom Fire Trail, off Old Maitland Road near Cessnock, when he was awoken by the sound of a motorbike.<br \/>\nHe unzipped his tent when two unknown men demanded his vehicle and keys.<br \/>\nWhen the 45-year-old refused, the pair assaulted him several times with a baseball bat.<br \/>\nThe homeless man fled his tent while the pair took his wallet and car keys, before fleeing in the man\u2019s white Mitsubishi Pajero \u2013 with NSW registration plates AIB 56K.<br \/>\nHe returned to his campsite and contacted police.<br \/>\nHe was taken to Cessnock Hospital for treatment to injuries to his back and shoulder.<br \/>\nOfficers from Hunter Valley Police District have commenced an investigation into the incident.<br \/>\nAs part of their inquiries, officers wish to speak with two men who may be able to assist with their investigation.<br \/>\nThe men have both been described as being of Caucasian appearance, aged in their 30s, and were last seen wearing dark clothing, with their faces covered by motorbike helmets.<br \/>\nPolice are urging anyone who may have dashcam footage from Old Maitland Road in the early hours of Wednesday morning, or who may have seen a white 2000 Mitsubishi Pajero with NSW registration plates AIB 56K, to contact Cessnock Police on 4991 0199 or to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.<br \/>\n<strong><em>Anyone with information about this incident is urged to contact Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000 or<\/em><\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/nsw.crimestoppers.com.au\/\"><strong><em>https:\/\/nsw.crimestoppers.com.au<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em>. Information is treated in strict confidence. The public is reminded not to report crime via NSW Police social media pages.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Police are appealing for public assistance after a homeless man was assaulted and robbed in the Hunter region. Shortly after 5am yesterday (Wednesday 6 May 2020), police have been told a 45-year-old man was asleep in a tent along the Elcom Fire Trail, off Old Maitland Road near Cessnock, when he was awoken by the &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/05\/07\/homeless-man-robbed-and-assaulted-near-cessnock\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Homeless man robbed and assaulted near Cessnock&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6429\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}