REYNOLDSBURG, Ohio -- A man without a home, who is a beloved fixture on Main Street, was off the streets and in a hospital bed.
Bob Wirtz has been recovering after he was attacked two days ago.
He hangs out on Main Street, and several business owners help house and feed him.
Wirtz’s friends want answers, and NBC 4’s Ana Jackson talked to them about Wirtz.
"He lives in a different world than most of us, but he's a fixture along Main Street," Reynoldsburg Police Lieutenant Jim O’Neill said.
“How long has he been coming around here? Oh, gosh. Since at least ’79,” Sunoco owner Jo Lynne Gates said.
"We call him the street walker, the crack counter. He counts every one of those cracks. I think he's got everyone of them named,” Connell Hardware employee Cody Nemaster said.
"He felt at home here, I think,” Connell Hardware owner Jean Connell said.
Monday morning, though, Wirtz’s friends were in for a tragic surprise. The owner of Connell Hardware found Wirtz beaten in his sleeping bag, right outside the store.
“I seen him, and I said, ‘Oh, my. There's something wrong with him,’ ” Nemaster said.
“He told policemen that he got beat up,” Connell said.
“It's the worst I've ever seen a man beat up in my life,” Nemaster said.
Connell said Wirtz’s whole face was swollen
“It seems very strange not to have him here. He's just kind of a fixture,” Connell said.
“It's just terrible. I mean, he doesn't hurt anybody. Why would anybody go and hurt him,” Gates asked.
“I guess, deep down, he means more to you than you realize when something happens like this. He's a friend. He's like family,” Connell said.
“You almost feel like somebody was just out to do something wrong to someone, and Robert just ended up in the wrong place at that time,” O’Neill said.
“They need to have the same thing they did to him happen to them. That's the way I feel,” Gates said.
Gates has started a donation jar at her Sunoco station. She’s going to be working through Chase Bank, she said.
She said the donations were to go towards Wirtz’s medical expenses.
Wirtz was taken to Mount Carmel Hospital East, and his friends said he is in stable condition.
Reynoldsburg police continued to search for suspects.
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