Man Tortured With Hot Fork by Four Robbers

An elderly Rosemead bar owner was tortured with a searing kitchen fork in his home Saturday morning until he agreed to give his four assailants $575 and the keys to his business, authorities said.

Six hours after the 3 a.m. attack, Thomas Harold Tam, 67, was found tied up in his living room by a Los Angeles County reserve sheriff’s deputy, who became suspicious when he noticed a door open at Tam’s Wagon Wheel Bar. Tam was treated at a nearby hospital for second- and third-degree burns to his neck and chest and released.

Later, deputies found Tam’s bar safe in a Rosemead park. Sheriff’s spokesman Bill Wehner said it appeared someone had tried to open the safe, but failed.

Investigators believe the four men tailed the bar owner home and jumped him as he opened the door.

Tam said the men tied him up and demanded he tell them where he keeps his money and other valuables. Dissatisfied with his response, the men reportedly grabbed a kitchen fork, heated it over the gas burner on Tam’s stove, and applied it to his body.