What to Know
- Two women abducted an elderly victim at gunpoint, robbed her and threatened her family, police said.
- The suspects first approached the victim inside the Marshalls Department store in West Norriton Township, according to investigators.
- Police said the suspects knew personal details about the victim's family and threatened to kill them if she didn't comply.
Two women abducted an elderly victim at gunpoint inside a Montgomery County department store, forced her to withdraw money from her account and threatened her family during a terrifying ordeal that lasted for hours, investigators said.
On July 11 around 1 p.m., two female suspects approached the 76-year-old woman inside the Marshalls Department Store at 540 S. Trooper Road in West Norriton Township. One of the suspects displayed a black semi-automatic gun inside a purse, police said. The suspects then allegedly told the woman not to scream or else they would kill her family.
“Don’t move. Don’t look. Don’t say nothing,” the victim told NBC10.
Investigators said all three then left the store and sat inside the victim’s car for about an hour. The suspects discussed the victim’s bank accounts and her ability to make large withdrawals of $6,000, according to police. One of the suspects then left the vehicle while the other forced the woman to drive to a Wells Fargo Bank on Egypt Road in Lower Providence. Police said the suspect had a gun pressed into the victim’s ribs as she drove.
“I was shaking so bad,” the victim said.
The victim then withdrew $1500 from the bank as one of the suspects waited outside, investigators said. The victim then drove with the suspect to a Home Depot where she was robbed of her money and jewelry.
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Police said the suspects were well organized and also knew personal information about the victim, her husband, children and grandchildren, including where they all lived.
“They told her everything about her family in detail that was very accurate,” West Norriton Police Detective Mark Wassmer said.
The suspects allegedly threatened to kill the woman’s family members if she alerted police or didn’t return to the car from the bank.
“Been on the job for almost 24 years and I’ve never seen anything of this nature of random strangers coming up to somebody in the department store,” Detective Wassmer said.
Both suspects were captured on surveillance video. The first suspect is described as a woman between the ages of 40 and 50, standing between 5-foot-2 and 5-foot-5 and weighing 140 pounds with black hair, yellow and pink braids across her forehead and shoulder-length hair.
She was last seen wearing a matching pink short sleeve shirt and pants with brown sandals. Police also said she was carrying a gun in a small beige and black purse.
The second suspect is described as a thin woman between the ages of 30 and 40 with long, black, braided hair. She was last seen wearing a bright yellow or green colored ¾ sleeve length shirt and yellow and black eyeglasses.
If you have any information on either suspect, please email Detective Wassmer at mwassmer@wntwp.com.
