Police: Maplewood Woman Strangled In Home Invasion
MAPLEWOOD, Minn. (WCCO) -- An elderly woman was threatened with a gun and strangled until she was unconscious during a home invasion over the weekend.
Maplewood Police say two men were caught on surveillance video using stolen credit cards suspects and need your help identifying them.
Police now have a camera keeping an eye on the Carefree Cottages. It's where a 75-year-old woman was the victim of a home invasion.
"I can't believe someone actually had the audacity to do a broad daylight, come into someone's home. How do you feel safe?" Rose Jordan said.
Police said the victim went back to her home after realizing she left something inside. That's when a woman came to her door, asking to use her phone.
"The suspect pulled out a gun backed her back into her home," Police Chief Paul Schnell said.
Schnell said the woman then called two men. They came to the home, bound the victim's hands and then ransacked the unit taking jewelry, credit cards and keys.
"Before they left they made her get down on the floor, they wrapped a clothing item around her neck and strangled her to the point she went unconscious. Really they left this woman for dead," Schnell said.
Once the woman came-to, she went to neighbor Joel Johnson's to call police.
"She was pretty out of it at that time matter of fact when police came, they got the paramedics out here too. It was very difficult, very traumatic," Johnson said.
People living nearby call the attack devastating and criminal.
"We're easy pickings, we're out and we're alone, most of us," Mary Louise Pasutti said.
"We're leaving our lights on and we're all watching out for each other here but that's all we can do," Jordan said.
Police are meeting with the Carefree Cottages community Tuesday afternoon. Chief Schnell calls this a random attack and is concerned the group could strike again and someone else could get hurt if they're not stopped.
If you have any information about the two men, or the woman working with them, contact police.
