A Philadelphia grocery store owner can be heard screaming for help after an armed masked man pushed her into her Northeast Philadelphia home late Wednesday night and her elderly mother wasn't going to allow here daughter to be attacked without fighting back.
The home invasion along the 6400 block of Dorcas Street in Lawncrest occurred around 9:30 p.m. when corner store owner Grimilda Vidaca entered through the side door of her home. Surveillance cameras – installed by Vidaca’s family after a home invasion less than a week ago – captured the armed masked man in a dark-colored hoodie forcing her into the home.
“The first guy that came in with her had her to the ground with a gun in his hand,” Digna Mercedes Silverio, Vidaca’s 76-year-old mother, told NBC10’s Keith Jones in Spanish.
Mercedes Silverio fought back – you can even see her hands attempt to choke the intruder before he knocked her to the ground and dragged back into the home.
The second man – also wearing a mask – who entered the home kept the women on the kitchen floor while the other guy ransacked the home,” said Philadelphia Police. The men eventually left out the front door without swiping anything, said the family.
Vidaca suffered minor bruising, said police. But, the attack left Mercedes Silverio with seven stitches in her head and a bruised shoulder.
"That's her, she's tough, actually she's on vacation, she doesn't live out here,” said Vidaca.
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Vidaca’s son Kelvin Jimenez said he was angry and that he believed his mother was targeted because she owns a store. “It's a coward act. It's two women," he said.
Mercedes Silverio doesn’t regret fighting back.
"Whatever they are doing – they have something against my daughter – they should avoid it because they're going to have to kill me first,” she said.
The attackers may not get a chance to strike again because Jimenez said the family plans to move.
Police asked anyone who recognizes the home invaders to contact police.
