90-Year-Old Woman Brutalized In Bridgeport Home

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (CBSNewYork) -- She was tied up and robbed.

Police are hunting for the man who brutalized a 90-year-old Connecticut woman.

A neighbor talking to CBS 2's Lou Young physically shuddered at the mention of what happened behind an apartment door in Bridgeport.

Manuela Vida answered a knock and believed the story she was told.

"He had a birthday present for her and she needed to sign for it. So she let him in. They went to the kitchen. She says then he jumped her from behind, dragged her to the bedroom, pulled out duct tape where he duct taped her hands and her ankles, then her mouth and her eyes and said if you say anything I'll kill you," Bridgeport Police spokesman Tim Quinn said.

Police said cash and the woman's social security card were taken. A neighbor's daughter told Young the victim was hospitalized Wednesday because of the stress.

"The security doors here are kept locked all the time and for someone to come in to the building late afternoon and do what they did is absolutely horrifying," Daisey Gemita said.

Residents are able to buzz in visitors through the lobby doors, and are warned not to let people follow them in, but it's easy to grab the door hold it and wait.

One neighbor told Young he believes he saw the robber in a hallway earlier in the day, describing him as a "short, white guy."

Police, however, describes the robber as Hispanic, 5-foot-5 and 150 pounds. They said the crime fits no existing pattern of home invasions they are aware of.

Neighbors said the attacker covered up the peepholes in some of the apartment doors on the same floor to keep people from seeing what was happening.

The incident was just the latest in a series of attacks on the elderly throughout the Tri-State Area. On Jan. 26, an elderly couple were beaten and robbed outside of their Staten Island home for $18. On Feb. 10, a Westchester County woman was arrested in the death of her 70-year-old mother. Then on Feb. 15, a 96-year-old man was beaten and robbed outside an elevator in his Queens building.

If you have information pertaining to this case, please call the Bridgeport Police Detective's Bureau at 203–581–5201.

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