89-Year-Old Woman Attacked Inside NYC Apartment, Robbed Of $5,000
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- An elderly woman was beaten and robbed inside her East Village home on Saturday. If that wasn't bad enough, the thief took money she was saving to buy her late husband's gravestone.
Now police are looking for the attacker. CBS2's Nick Caloway spoke to the victim on Thursday.
It was a ruthless attack. The victim is 89 years old. She said she was shoved and punched.
"When I pushed the door, tried to open the door, I feel like somebody put the hand over me," Maximina Osorio said.
Osorio said she was just coming home from shopping on Saturday morning when police said she opened her door and her attacker, whose image was captured on surveillance video in the lobby of the building near East 10th Street and Avenue D, forced his way into her apartment.
"He kept pushing me from here to over there," Osorio said, showing Caloway what happened. "And I told him, 'Don't bother me. I've got asthma.' I've got chronic asthma. My lungs are very bad."
But the attack didn't end there. When Osorio tried to scream for help, the robber punched her and shoved her to the ground, police said.
"He told me to 'Shut up! Shut up! And don't scream!' So he keep me like that and I can't breath," Osorio said.
The victim said the robber asked her where she kept her money. Once he found out, he stole $5,000 from her bedroom, police said. It was money she was saving to buy a tombstone for her late husband.
"I'm alone here. I'm alone by myself," Osorio said.
The suspect is described as Hispanic with a light complexion, about 5-foot-8, with a full beard. He was last seen wearing a blue hoodie, blue t-shirt, blue jeans and a Philadelphia Flyers cap.
Osorio said she thinks there was a second man there who helped rob her.
Neighbors told Caloway the crime in the area is something they constantly worry about.
"They got a lot of drugs in this building, a lot of drugs," one neighbor said.
"Every time I come home I look back everywhere because you never know who's behind the doors," Lydia Bueno added.
Osorio, who has lived in her apartment for more than 30 years, said despite the brutal attack she considers herself lucky.
"Thank God. Thank God they don't do anything to me, because the money, don't care. The money, I can make it. But my life?" she said.
Osorio spent more than two days in the hospital, adding she has pain, and is bruised on her legs, back, neck and face.
Anyone with information about the attack is asked to call NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) for Spanish. You can also submit a tip via the Crime Stoppers website, by Tweeting @NYPDTips or by texting a tip to 274637 (CRIMES) and then entering TIP577.