Walking alone through a parking lot after daylight hours is something that can send a chill up the spine of even the most able individual.

So what must it be like for an elderly person to be jumped on down a dimly lit sidewalk or be beaten as though they were a punch bag?

These are harsh images, but the sad reality is that such incidents have occurred to seniors, who are increasingly becoming targets of criminals.

And the fact is that, even in broad daylight, Bermuda's elderly are not safe, with desperate criminals becoming more and more willing to strike.

Having travelled to such far away continents as Asia and Africa, one senior victim of crime says she is now afraid to go outside in Bermuda - her home - by herself.

She explained that she looks at life with an entirely new perspective since last summer's mugging.

“It was in the parking lot at the hospital,” she said. “I was with my friend and we had just come from visiting a sick friend, when this boy rode up between us, grabbed my bag and threw me to the ground. My friend thought that he had made a mistake and was expecting him to come back and apologise.

“Meanwhile I'm screaming ‘he's got my bag!'”

The senior, who asked not to be named, said the “inconvenience” of having personal belongings stolen was a troubling feeling.

“I would have given him the money if he asked, I only had $28 in my wallet,” she said. “All my credit cards were gone, my cheque book personal photographs - all of it was just horrific. You feel like you have been violated.

“But since this has happened, I try to make other people aware of trying to protect themselves. I tell them not to have their purses dangling off their arm and to never carry any valuables in their purse.”

Police have agreed that the number of crimes against seniors is on the increase.

And senior advocates believe that it is because they are seen as easy targets.

Irene Barton, an 80-year-old Pembroke resident said that vigilance is the key to deterring potential predators.

She said she has watched with anger how changing values in the community have crept into her neighbourhood, where seniors are shown no respect.

And she said that seniors should fight back at all times and constantly make the public aware of the heinous activities they fall victim to.

She said that not a weekend goes by where some criminal activity takes place in the Pembroke neighbourhood - whether it is drug dealing or a burglary.

“In my neighbourhood people come running to me, because they are afraid,” Mrs. Barton said. “They are always telling me to call 911. And it is terrible, because you're not supposed to feel like a prisoner in your own home.

“I will not let anyone keep me in my own house. If it comes that I have to punch them in the face then that's what I will do, because I have a right to enjoy my home and my neighbourhood. If the Lord has let me last all these years there's no way that I am going to be pushed around by these bad boys. Once they know that you are in fear, you are in trouble.”

Mrs. Barton said her peers stay silent about the activities that go on in her neighbourhood, because they do not want to be victims of retaliation.

She said she has watched in “disgust” as “bad boys” threaten seniors with their pit bull dogs when they are told not to litter the neighbourhood area with trash and beer bottles.

And she took aim at the Police for not being more visible and the courts for not handing down harsher sentences against convicted attackers.

“I blame the magistrate right along down,” she said. “They are all supposed to uphold the law. There are drug addicts that are doing these bad things - they take advantage of us and the invalids. They talk about supporting seniors this way and that, but they need to be more serious.

We have good homes for senior citizens, but we live in fear, because these young lot come around and threaten us.”