Armed robbers tied and beat a 79-year-old Staffordshire man before stealing antiques and paintings worth over £100,000.
The victim suffered a brutal seven-hour ordeal in his North Staffordshire country home in Rushton Spencer, near Leek.
Two thugs knocked him to the ground and dragged him in to the house as he returned from a supermarket trip.
They were joined by five or six other men, all believed to have Eastern European accents.
They then battered the family dog with a baseball bat, taped the elderly homeowner to a chair before beating him with an iron bar and punching him repeatedly in the face.
The gang, who arrived in several vans, then stripped the country home of paintings, furniture, historic suits of armour, old weaponry, jewellery, watches and more.
They also ripped phone wires, and left their victim alone, beaten up and bound while ripping up floor boards and smashing holes in ceilings to look for money and other valuables.
One of the victim’s relatives has launched a Facebook campaign to alert antiques dealers across the UK in a bid to trace the gang.
The Facebook thread has had almost 12,000 hits in less than 24 hours.
The relative, who declined to be named, told StaffsLive: “It’s clearly been a highly professional and organised job and wasn’t just a random attack.
“Police think they may have been watching the house for some time. There is little in the way of DNA, although there are some leads, and they all wore gloves all the time, and masks.
“All of the antiques taken are big canvass portraits – Cromwellian-style portraits or landscapes – and they’ve taken five suits of armour, swords, Cromwellian helmets, breast plates, pikes and that sort of thing.
“I cannot believe how anyone with even a shred of decency could beat an 80-year-old defenceless man in the way they did.
“He is black and blue and very shaken up, but considering what he has been through, he is coping remarkably well.
“But they’ve left him with nothing and to make it worse, as a pensioner he couldn’t afford insurance premiums – so he really has lost everything.
“This gang needs to be brought to justice, before they destroy another person’s life.”
They also stole the victim’s grandson’s Mercedes Sprinter, reg KM57 TCU, which was outside and filled it full of gear. The robbery happened at around 8pm on Friday September 27.
Det Sgt Rich Baddeley, investigating officer, said: “We believe this incident was targeted and pre-planned and I can reassure residents this type of crime is extremely rare in Staffordshire.
“The offenders assaulted the victim and tied him up whilst they systematically searched his house selecting valuable items. I can only imagine how scared he must have been during this horrific incident.
“A detailed investigation is now underway which includes the examination of forensic evidence from the scene, checks of CCTV and Automatic Number Plate Recognition systems (ANPR) from the locality.
“We believe the specialist items could be offered for sale via auction or specialist dealers and we are contacting as many as possible to make them aware of this incident.
“Anyone with an involvement in this type of property is asked to familiarise themselves with the descriptions below and contact us immediately if they have information or are offered such items for sale.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact DS Baddeley at Staffordshire Police on 101, quoting incident number 144 of September 28. Alternatively, they can contact independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.