Intruders who demanded gold and struck an elderly man in his face at his Southampton residence failed to spoil Christmas for their victim.

The 86-year-old widower, who has remained unnamed to protect his privacy, was assaulted at a Leacraft Hill Road home on Monday evening.

His assailants fled empty-handed.

“It’s going to get worse,” said the man, who has lived in the quiet rural neighbourhood for the past 50 years. “We have a lot of people unemployed, whether it’s youngsters or older people. You look around at Christmas time at the amount of people that went to the Salvation Army for help — that goes to show you a lot.”

Although he said he owns nothing of special value, the home where he has resided since 1963 has been broken into “about three times in the past ten years”.

Monday evening’s confrontation, however, marked a new low.

“I was doing my garden work and bringing in my tools,” he said. “When I came back to the house I saw these two men standing in the door.”

The subsequent encounter, around 6.15pm, “happened so fast”, he said, that a description proved difficult.

“They were covered over part of their faces. I couldn’t recognise them. They were soft-spoken,” he said. “One of them said to me, ‘I want your gold. Give me all the gold and rings that you have.’ I told them I didn’t have anything.”

After that, he continued, the taller of the two struck “struck me in the face”.

“I started shouting for help, and when I did that they ran off,” the man said. “But had I fallen when he struck me, it would have been a different story. But I was able to stand up after the blow.”

As it happened, his treasured ring from his marriage in 1952 was safely put away, because of his garden work.

“They would have taken it,” the man said.

At the time, his neighbours were out Christmas shopping. With nobody around and no family in the vicinity, the man called police.

The intruders are described as stocky and brown-complexioned males around 5ft 9in tall, and approximately 25 years old.

Asked what the two could have hoped to find in a modest home with just a single elderly occupant, the man said: “They were probably driving through and decided to pick this house. People can’t get employment. They need money for drugs, I would think. They don’t care.”

His family, with whom he spent Christmas, were “shocked” — but the man said his injury hadn’t been severe, and nothing was taken from his home.

“It was just sore,” he said, pointing to his right cheek. “The swelling has gone down.”

He said he bore his two assailants no ill will, adding that the encounter, though frightening, hadn’t altered his view of the neighbourhood.

“I love this area; all around here,” he said — although he shook his head when asked if Bermuda’s troubled times looked to be nearing their end.

“I don’t really think it’s levelling out. Not yet.”

The attack on an elderly man is a crime now under investigation, and police have appealed for anyone who may have information to contact the Western Criminal Investigation United at 234-1010.

However, the victim said he doubted jail would do anything for the two offenders — and said the idea of them coming back didn’t frighten him.

“They know where I live,” he said. “If I could speak with them, and they would speak with me, I would do what little I could to help them. I would be willing to do all that I can.”