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85-year-old veteran held at gunpoint, robbed in his Ray County home

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RAY COUNTY, Mo. -- The Ray County Sheriff's Department is investigating after thieves broke into an elderly veteran's home just west of Orrick on Friday morning.

"It was a scary ordeal, I'll tell you," 85-year-old Shirley Battagler said of the break-in.

Around 4 a.m. he says two men wearing Halloween masks broke through his window and kicked down the back door, demanding Battagler and his friend, Renee McCormack, turn over any guns in the house.

"He showed me that he had a gun, and he rubbed it upside of my head....and said you better tell me, or I'll blow your head off," Battagler said.

The thieves took his rifle and his father's shotgun. Battagler believes the whole ordeal went on for two hours, during which time the thieves rummaged through drawers and stole his wallet.

Once they got what they wanted from inside the house, the crooks came out to the garage and loaded their loot into Battagler's black 2013 Chevrolet pickup truck. They also slashed McCormack's tires, so no one could follow them.

"I'm thinking what is this country coming to? Are we becoming the Wild West all over again?" Battagler's niece, Karen Koerner, said of the robbery.

"It was sad, and it was scary, but I am very thankful that they left my uncle alive," she went on to say.

Battagler is thankful too and summed up the whole experience with just a few words.

"It's bad business," he said and laughed.

Battagler's truck is still missing. The license plate number is 7WT230. If you have any information, call the Ray County Sheriff's Department at 816-290-5323.