Man beaten, bound, locked in closet during South Bend home invasion

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SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- South Bend Police are looking for two men who committed a violent home invasion early Monday morning. The victim says he was beaten, bound with duct tape and locked in a closet in his home on Studebaker Street near Linden Avenue.

“When I woke up they were standing over me. They started strangling me and choking me.” Meshak, who asked us not to use his last name, said.

Meshak says the beating caused him to lose consciousness. When he woke up, the intruders were binding his hands and feet with duct tape and a curtain they had ripped down.

“I was asking them ‘Why? What did I do?’” Meshak said. “They started saying, ‘We are here because we need money.’”

Meshak tells ABC57 he told the two where his wallet was located. They took it. But, before they left, they pushed him into a closet in his bedroom. The closet is very dark and small, about the size of a bathtub.

“They were leaving me to die.” Meshak said.

Meshak says the two men used a chair, cabinet and his bed to barricade the closet door shut. If Meshak weren’t strong enough, he says he would have never escaped. He started to pray and push on the door.

“Prayed and pushed and prayed and pushed until there was a very small gap.”

He doesn’t know how long he was inside of the closet. He managed to squeeze through the small gap and recovered a knife to cut himself free.

Meshak says he’s nervous the men could come back or attack someone else.

“I hope they get caught.” He said.

Meshak says one of the attackers are in their 20’s or 30’s. One is a white man, the other is black. They were between 5’8” and 5’10”. Both of them were wearing hooded sweatshirts.

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