Nov 11, 2007 4:23 pm US/Eastern
Men Pretending To Deliver Flowers Rob 80-Year-Old
Roughly $60,000 Taken From Elderly Couple's Home
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Carmen Nieves, 80, was robbed of about $60,000 by two men pretending to be delivering flowers to her.
CBS
An 80-year-old woman was tied up and robbed during a brazen break in at her lower Manhattan home. The woman was attacked by two men who said they were delivering flowers to her.
Carmen Nieves has lived in the same Norfolk St. apartment since 1965, and she has never been a victim of any crime, but last week, two men knocked on her door holding flowers.
They told her the flowers were from her husband, and she needed to sign for them.
"I opened the door and when I opened it, they pushed me in," said Nieves. "They put wraps on my hands, on my feet and my mouth."
After the two men tied her up, Nieves said they ransacked her house for money. They found and stole roughly $60,000 her husband had been saving to start his own business.
While upset over the theft, her Husband Michael Nieves is thankful that his wife wasn't harmed. "It could have been worse," he told CBS 2 HD.
Police have released a surveillance picture of the two suspects. They are described as Hispanic males, between the ages of 20 and 30.
Carmen Nieves said they looked like boys when she saw them at her door. "Because they were so young, I wasn't afraid," said the octogenarian.
"How can I not open the door? They have flowers, they say [my husband sent] them to me, and besides that they were young kids," she added.
Michael Nieves says he isn't sure how the suspects knew they had money in the house, but he said he did tell one person about it, and he feels "somebody sent those thieves [to his house.]"
Anyone with information is urged to call police.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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