Skip to content
News
Link copied to clipboard

Police: Center City jewelry store worker abducted and robbed

A Center City jewelry store worker was pulled into a van by a trio of kidnappers who brutalized and robbed her after she left work Saturday afternoon, police said Sunday.

A Center City jewelry store worker was pulled into a van by a trio of kidnappers who brutalized and robbed her after she left work Saturday afternoon, police said Sunday.

The 53-year-old woman had left the store on the 100 block of South Eighth Street around 4 p.m. and walked to a garage at 733 Chestnut St., where she had parked. She said she noticed a graffiti-smeared, burgundy older model Ford Econoline across from her car.

Three men in dark clothes and ski masks jumped out of the cargo van and pulled her inside, police said.

She said the men demanded she hand over the keys to the jewelry store and the codes to the safe, which she did not know.

They then put a hood over her head and terrorized her, police said.

For an hour, they drove around with her in the van, police said, repeatedly punching, kicking, and choking her, and shooting her seven times with a stun gun.

Her abductors then dumped her, with zip ties around her wrists and ankles, in a cemetery in Darby Borough, Delaware County, police said.

As the victim tried to get out of the bindings, her attackers returned, pulling her back into the van and putting steel ankle shackles on her and again covering her head with a hood, police said.

They continued to beat her as they drove her around. This time, they demanded her ATM code, which she gave them, and they stopped several times to withdraw money. They stole her bag, ID, credit cards, $200, business and house keys, and phone, police said.

Finally, the attackers returned to the cemetery, where they left her again, police said.

After the woman got the hood off, she walked to the road, where a passing driver stopped and called 911.

At Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, the woman was treated for a concussion, multiple bruises, a black eye, and contusions and scratches, police said.

Police were investigating the claims and searching for the attackers, a spokeswoman said Sunday.

Police said all the attackers were black men wearing black pants and hooded sweatshirts.

The driver of the van was in his late 20s, 6-foot-3, with a muscular build, police said. He wore a ski mask and sunglasses.

Another was described as 6 feet tall and of thin build, also wearing a ski mask and sunglasses.

The third was 5-foot-5 with a heavy build, police said.

856-779-3220 @elaijuh