US veterans' organisations have reached out to help a Korean War-era veteran who authorities say was held hostage in a motel room for four years by a man who stole his benefit cheques.
Groups in New York, Ohio and Virginia have offered assistance to David McLellan, an 81-year-old Navy veteran and retired auto plant worker, said Highlands police detective Joseph Cornetta.
Last week, police arrested 43-year-old Perry Coniglio at the motel where both men lived and charged him with grand larceny, menacing and endangering the welfare of an incompetent person.
Coniglio used "brute force and intimidation" to get McLellan to hand over monthly Ford Motor Company pension and Social Security cheques totalling several thousand dollars, police allege.
He also is accused of selling McLellan's vehicle and keeping the proceeds after telling the buyers that he was the older man's guardian.
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Coniglio remained in the county jail on Monday. Messages seeking comment on the accusations against him were left for his Legal Aid Society lawyer.
Police said the thefts began soon after McLellan, who has no known relatives, moved out of his condemned house in nearby Fort Montgomery in 2012 and rented a room at the US Academy Motel in Highlands, north of New York City.
McLellan was already showing signs of dementia when he moved, the detective said, and Coniglio "immediately sized up the victim" upon renting a room next door to him.
The detective said the initial investigation began earlier in July as a financial crimes probe after someone tipped him off that McLellan's monthly benefits cheques were being stolen.
McLellan remained in hospital on Monday and is now under the care of Orange County Veterans Services.
