CBS2 Exclusive: Staten Island Woman Recalls Horror Of Being Tied Up, Beaten In Own Home
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Staten Island mother was brutally beaten in her own home by an intruder in the middle of the day – in an attack that left her with lifelong scars.
The woman, Celine Sahin, shared her story exclusively with CBS2's Valerie Castro as a lesson for other women.
Sahin was hospitalized for eight days after the attack, which she said will haunt her for the rest of her life.
The attacker broke her hands. The tip of her middle finger is now gone after she tried to defend herself after the violent struggle.
But Sahin knows she is lucky.
"Does it make you angry when you see that?" Castro asked of Sahin's finger.
"Of course, of course," Sahin said emotionally. "You know, and before that, you know, I thought that I didn't have nice hands. But when I look at them right now, I mean, they're just so beautiful, you know."
Sahin was off from work the day of the attack. She was at her home on the South Shore of Staten Island when she heard the doorbell ring just before noon.
A few minutes later, there was a much different sound.
"It was like something was, like, crashing on the floor," Sahin said.
Sahin cautiously went downstairs. She realized the noise that she had heard was the man forcing his way in through a downstairs window.
Sahin said the man met her at the bottom of the stairs, and began to hit her with a metal rod. She showed CBS2 how he pulled her hands behind her back, and then tied them with a cellphone cord.
He directed her to go upstairs and demanded more valuables. And in her room, he told her to get on her bed.
"So he said, 'Lay down,' so I lay down like that, and then he tied my feet," Sahin said.
She was certain he would sexually assault her.
"Thank God he didn't do it," she said. "Maybe -- I don't know why. Thank God he didn't do it."
And all throughout the attack, she thought he would kill her.
"'This is my life, and I'm not going to die like that.' I just, you know, kept repeating: 'I'm not going to die like that. I'm not going to die like that. I'm not going to die here.'"
Sahin did not die. She survived.
After recovering, Sahin was stronger, and she wanted women to hear her story and know safety and security cannot be taken for granted.
"If this happens in your house, it could happen anywhere," she said.
There was no clear description of the suspect as of late Tuesday, and the NYPD had made no arrest.
