MIAMI (WSVN) - An elderly veteran is nursing bruises and broken bones after a thief ambushed and beat him, Sunday, before stealing his prized Corvette.
Omar Sixto has several stitches, bruises and bone fractures in his face, and almost no memory of the moment he was brutally beaten by the thief who stole his car.
“I had blood here, blood here, and you know, I felt the tooth, you know, chip,” Sixto said, pointing to different spots on his head. “I just went unconscious. I never knew what hit me. I never knew. I don’t even remember how I got up. I was totally dizzy.”
The Vietnam War veteran came under attack Sunday afternoon, near his friend’s house, near Northwest Sixth Street and 28th Avenue. “He hit me on the back of the head with something,” he said. “I don’t even know if it was a pistol.”
Sixto said he was fixing the windshield wiper on his Corvette when he noticed a clean-cut man in his early 20s walking back and forth across the street.
“I should have really paid attention to the guy pacing, but he didn’t look like a criminal,” Sixto said. “He didn’t look like a criminal at all.”
Sixto turned around, and before he knew it, he was on the ground. By the time he came to, his face was covered in blood. he was missing part of his tooth and his beloved Corvette was gone.
“I have a broken bone here in my eye socket. The septum in the nose is also broken. Three stitches here, eight here, three in the back and a chipped tooth,” Sixto said.
The 72-year-old is now being taken care of at his brother’s home. His family is still in disbelief about the ordeal.
“He left him for dead,” said Richard Sixto, Omar’s nephew. “It’s sad. It’s sad to see that someone would do that.”
The family hopes someone will spot the Corvette and call police.
They said the car is a 2000 model convertible with a tan top and a Florida tag of 266LTW.
“A couple of inches further in the brain, I would have been gone,” Sixto said.
Still, Sixto said, this attack is nothing compared to what he saw during the war. He moved to Miami 50 years ago and went on to have a successful finance career and has published dozens of novels and poems.
While he’s grateful to be alive, Sixto is hoping he’ll find justice at the end of this story. “It was a close call. No matter what, it was a close call,” Sixto said. “I could have been killed [Sunday].”
If you have any information on this robbery, call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS. Remember, you can always remain anonymous, and you may be eligible for a $1,000 reward.
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