"They're tearing down everything I built," cries penniless old manCHICAGO - Alvah Roebuck sold his interest in the store that officially still bears his name, Sears, Roebuck & Company, to his partner Richard Sears in 1965. But everyday for the past seven years, the 95-year old plants his wheel chair outside the company's Chicago store and publicly criticizes his old partner.
"Why the hell does he hide the appliances in the back of the store? He's got no damn common sense," Roebuck yelled to no one in particular on a recent visit to the store. Shoppers who had no idea that the man lobbing verbal grenades was the grand old store's co-founder scurried to report him to store personnel. "The women's underwear is downright pornographic," Roebuck screamed to a black couple entering the store who tried to ignore him. "Do you hear me? Porn-o-graphic! Richard's going straight to hell!"
On this day, as on most others, police are summoned to escort the old man away.
Roebuck's granddaughter, Velveeta Roebuck-Lugosi, a violinist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, took time during a break in rehearsal to explain her grandfather's rage. "Grandpa's still upset that he sold out his interest in the store and got virtually nothing from old man Sears," she said as she softly churned out a maudlin melody. "I'd personally like to put old man Sears' head in a vice and squeeze until his eyeballs pop out. I would savor the gushing of the blood, and then I would castrate him and eat his nuts raw while his popped-out eyeballs watched. But don't print that."
Ms. Roebuck-Lugosi revealed that her grandfather is in "serious discussions" to partner with James Cash Penney of the store that bears his name and Sebastian Kresge, founder of Kmart.
