A 79-YEAR-OLD Northern Province farmer and his elderly wife have been briefly hospitalised after three armed men ambushed and beat them on Sunday night. The knife-wielding attackers reportedly lured Hermanus Johannes Oosthuizen out of his smallholding house near Pietersburg by taunting his dog at 10pm on Sunday night. “His 71-year old wife, Gerbrecht, heard his screams and rushed out to help but was also caught,” said police spokeswoman Captain Ronel Otto. The attackers allegedly beat Oosthuizen until he lost consciousness and then dragged his terrified wife into the house and demanded money from her at knifepoint. “They also threatened to gut her if she did not stop screaming for help,” said Otto. They fled the scene after realizing that she had activated a security service panic button before responding to her husbands screams. – African Eye News Service