Police: Bronx Armed Robbery Suspects Steal $5 After Binding 83-Year-Old Woman With Duct Tape
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police are looking for three people who allegedly stole $5 after tying up an 83-year-old woman during an armed robbery in the Bronx, the NYPD said.
Just before 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 20, police said one of the suspects knocked on the victim's apartment door on Prospect Avenue in Belmont and said she had a package for her.
When the victim opened the door, the three suspects pushed their way into the apartment, took out a gun and bound the victim with duct tape, police said.
"They come and say they're UPS, and next thing you know, they come bum-rush the house," neighbor Luis Medina told CBS2's Janelle Burrell.
Medina said the woman's husband was at the grocery store when the trio barged into the building and believes the husband actually saw the suspects himself.
"While they was in there looking for money, whatever they was looking for, he rung the buzzer," Medina said. "So I guess they panicked and they got scared and they ran out the apartment. So as they ran down the stairs, they ran by him."
When the victim's husband reached his apartment in the six-story walk-up, he entered to find his wife wrapped in duct tape, Burrell reported.
"He sees his wife is tied up with tape on her mouth and she's wrapped up with her hands behind her back," Medina said.
The woman was not injured.
In order to get inside the building, the suspects had to be buzzed through a security gate and then get past two security doors to get into the lobby, Burrell reported.
Police sources told CBS2 the victim's husband suffers from dementia and apparently had been bragging in the street about having money inside the home.
The suspects heard him and targeted the apartment, sources told CBS2.
But police said the suspects only made off with $5 in cash.
"They walked in the house. They just started looking, breaking ceilings and breaking walls," Medina said.
Now the couple said they're too scared to open the door, even to Medina, who has known them for years, Burrell reported.
Police released surveillance images of the three suspects -- two men and one woman -- who are all believed to be Hispanic and in their early 20s.
They are also being eyed in another robbery in the building next door in which the victim was tied up, sources told CBS2.
"With the seniors, they're targeted. They're targeted." Eileen Cuevas, of Belmont, said. "So we believe everything. That's the problem."
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 800-577-TIPS (8477). The public can also submit their tips to the Crime Stoppers website or text their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
