Ailing elderly couple traumatised after brutish home invasion

The couple said the terrifying experience had left them shattered and fearful, destroying what was once a peaceful, carefree existence at their modest Clancy Lane home of 58 years.

Giuliana Lupo, 75, said she saw a shadowy figure outside her kitchen window 30 minutes before the back door was kicked open in the early hours of December 11.

She said a towering man wearing a black mask entered and barked orders for her to sit on the couch, then two other men, also wearing masks, entered her bedroom where her husband, Salvatore, was sleeping.

When she asked the first man who they were, one man told her "we're with the government" and showed a fake police badge.

"But I knew they weren't police - my husband at first thought they were, he was half asleep, but we both quickly realised they weren't policemen," she said.

Mrs Lupo, who is in the last stage of terminal cancer and has mobility problems, said she believed she was going to be violently killed during the terrifying ordeal.

"One made me sit on the couch, one went into the bedroom to search there and told Salvatore to stay put, while the other ransacked the entire house," she said.

"They didn't take my jewellery, they seemed to be interested only in cash which is strange because we only had a little bit more than $1000 in the house."

Mrs Lupo's daughter, Nellie Bonacci, said the men searched the house and the yard before the trio left the property in a black Ford Ranger.

"They took about 25 minutes to search Mum and Dad's property before they drove off," Ms Bonacci said.

Ms Bonacci said police were quickly notified and had since located the Ford Ranger, stolen from another location, abandoned in Melbourne.

She said she believed one of the thieves might have been tipped off about her mother winning a jackpot on the poker machines at the nearby Savoy Club three nights before the invasion.

"Since Mum got sick she rarely goes to the club but just before Christmas she started to feel better and thought she'd go to the club to see her friends and have a bit of a flutter," Ms Bonacci said.

"She won a small jackpot and didn't really tell anyone but we think someone at the club might have noticed and, Myrtleford, being the small town it is, word gets around, you know?

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"The fact that these people broke in three nights later seems to be a bit much of a coincidence.

"We think someone might have known about Mum winning it and maybe thought it was the big jackpot, but it was only a minor jackpot.

"It was only about $1000 and if it wasn't for that money, the thieves would have left empty-handed because my parents don't keep large amounts of cash in the house."

Mr Lupo, 91, said while he was being held in the bedroom, he pleaded with one of the men to leave because they "didn't have any money".

"Then he said to me, 'well you have enough to play the pokies'," Mr Lupo said.

Ms Bonacci said this was enough to convince her that her mother's small win on the pokies was linked to the home invasion.

She said the terrifying experience had left her parents shattered and had ruined the Christmas for her parents, especially her mother.

"Mum is in stage 4 of cancer, so that is likely to be her last Christmas," Ms Bonacci said. "I wonder if these people would have done such a heartless, horrible thing if they knew that Mum is dying.

"She's been a wreck since - both of them are just amazed that after all of these years of not locking the door, 58 years of hearing about someone very occasionally being robbed, then this awful thing happens.

"We just want anyone who might have heard something or saw that Ford somewhere to come forward to talk to the police because they haven't got very far with their investigation on this one."

A Wangaratta police spokesman told The Border Mail detectives suspected the intruders had a strong connection to Myrtleford and urged anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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