Men Tie Up Tavern Owner, Demand She Turns Over Money

Two men tied up a 68-year-old bar owner and ransacked her apartment in the Olney section of Philadelphia overnight.

The owner of Tellup’s Tavern along the 1300 block of Olney Avenue said that she fell asleep while watching television in her apartment around midnight -- she would normally get up around closing time to close the bar she owned downstairs.

A short time later, she woke up to find two men in her apartment -- having apparently broken in through a rear second-floor window.

The men -- both wearing dark clothing -- quickly got violent using an extension cord and the woman's clothing to bind her.

“They tied her up around her neck, they bound her wrists as well as her ankles, and they demanded her to tell them where the money was,” said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small. “She stated she had no money.

“These two robbers then completely ransacked the property.”

The men would rip doors off hinges, toss drawers from furniture and wreck the place before eventually giving up the search for money and instead taking a registered handgun and jewelry.

The woman managed to free herself after about an hour and called for help.

Investigators said they planned to look at surveillance video in the area as they try to track down the suspects. They also dusted a retrieved jewelry box for prints since the men didn't wear gloves during the attack.

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