NEW JERSEY — A 73-year-old New Jersey woman survived an armed robbery on Sunday when two masked intruders entered her home while she was working on a craft project, police say.
The robbery in Clifton appears to be random, said police, who responded to Ramona Cartagena’s 911 call around 12 p.m. They arrived at her Linden Avenue home to find the woman lying on her living room floor. They had covered her mouth and bound her wrists and ankles with duct tape.
“It was so fast it’s really scary. They can do something like that so fast,” Cartagena recalled on Monday.
Cartagena said that as soon as the front door opened and she saw a dark figure, she froze. She was making crafts in her kitchen when the two men entered, one of them grabbing her tape.
“He grabbed my hand, put me here and bandaged my hands, feet and mouth,” he said.
As the man threw her to the ground and tied her up, his accomplice ran up the stairs and began to ransack the house in Cartagena. It was only when they ran out of some of her belongings that she began to roam freely and used her phone to call the police.
“I’m devastated. This will never happen again. She will never be left alone or the house will ever be left alone at any time,” said her son-in-law, Dennis Molner.
With the intruders still at large, Molner said he would add cameras to his home.
Among the items stolen, mostly cash and jewelry, Cartagena said the thieves stole a coin that belonged to her deceased daughter. They were jewels that Cartagena had planned to pass on to her granddaughter.
“It’s sad because it’s something he left for his daughter knowing it was going to get her,” he said.
No arrests were made; An investigation is underway.