“I can’t believe someone would mug a guy with one arm, one leg and a woman.” — Lance Corporal Mark Beyers, interview with WUSA 9 News

Photo source: Speakupwny.com

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This is so low: A disabled war hero and his wife were assaulted and robbed in Bethesda, Md., a few weeks ago. The Buffalo News reported on Thursday:

Mark Beyers lost an arm and a leg to a roadside bomber in Iraq, but that didn’t stop a gang of thugs from mugging Beyers and his wife outside a Bethesda, Md., restaurant.

Beyers, 27, a Marine lance corporal from Elma finishing up rehabilitation at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., had just left a restaurant on July 22 when the robbery happened.

“Five guys approached us,” his wife, Denise, said in a telephone interview from Washington. “They were asking for a cigarette, we gave them one, and headed toward our car.”

Beyers, fitted with a prosthetic leg and arm, was almost to the car with his wife when the men approached again.

“Two of them came up to me and said “Give me your purse, give me your purse,’ ” his wife said.

Denise Beyers, who was just discharged from the Marines herself last week, wasn’t about to give up without a fight.

“I was swearing at them, retaliating, and holding on to my purse,” she said. “They ended up getting it away from me; they threw me on the ground.”

Dave Beyers Sr., Mark’s father, said his son told him the group knocked him to the ground, and then punched or kicked his wife.

“They busted her lips up,” Dave Beyers said. “I guess she hit the ground so hard, it ripped her knees up. She’s got scabs all over.”

“She got beat up pretty good,” he said. “I talked to her the next day, and she was still shaking, you could tell.”

Mark Beyers escaped the ordeal without injury. The couple reported the robbery to the police, but no arrests have been made.

WUSA 9 News in D.C. and WaPo follow up. WaPo:

The Beyerses have received an outpouring of sympathy and some financial donations, including a $1,200 check from Ohev Shalom-The National Synagogue in Shepherd Park.

The Beyerses, who are from New York, are staying at Walter Reed Army Medical Center while Mark Beyers is in rehabilitation for his injuries. The couple, together since high school and married since April, arrived at the hospital in October and may be able to return to their hometown of Elma, N.Y, in a week.

“Hopefully, we’re almost done,” Denise Beyers said yesterday.

Background on Beyers’ war injuries and recovery process here.

Stars and Stripes reports on fund-raising efforts for the couple:

[T]he Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Akron, N.Y., is planning to hold a fundraiser for the couple.

Donations can be made by calling the Alden State Bank at 716-937-3381.