AN elderly man has been left shaken after a motorist wrote him a vile letter for allegedly holding up traffic while he walked to get his morning newspaper.
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Each morning, Bill O'Connor walks a few blocks from his home in Horsham’s north-west to a service station on Baillie Street.
The motorist alleges in the letter that in doing so, Mr O’Connor, 78, forces him or her to stop and wait.
The motorist, who left the letter at Mr O’Connor’s home, writes that Mr O’Connor “can’t even walk properly” and is a nuisance.
“That’s the fourth time I’ve had to wait for you to walk across the road, why can’t you walk like a human?” the letter reads.
Mr O’Connor’s carer Rod Kennett said his client’s morning walk to get the newspaper was something he had done for 10 to 15 years.
“He lives by himself, and his routine is to get up and walk to the service station,” he said. “I care for him every day and get there about lunchtime. On Tuesday last week I got there and he said, ‘I’ve got mail’.
“I was very upset when I read the letter. Bill said he’d had a similar letter before, about two years ago.
“I said to him to take note of the car and the number plate, but that’s obviously a bit hard for him to do.
“It just put a lot of thoughts through my mind. I was trying to picture if he's halfway across the road, or if he is stepping in front of the car. But his eyesight is alright.”
Mr Kennett and Mr O’Connor reported the incident to police.
Mr Kennett said the incident was hard for both him and Mr O’Connor to deal with and process.
“I clean public toilets for a living and I've seen a lot of things in that line of work; this letter is worse than any of that,” he said.
“An elderly person can't walk down the street in the country without getting abused.
“It’s a form of road rage, what this person wrote. Their attitude has to change.
“This person knows Bill is going to be crossing the road at that time, but he thinks Bill shouldn’t exist.
“They're pretty thick-skinned, the older generation, but they shouldn't have to go through this.”
Mr O’Connor said receiving the letter was hurtful, but said he was tough.
He said it would not deter him from continuing to walk to buy a newspaper each day.