Jewelers Row employee abducted - twice

Police say three men kidnapped a jewelry store employee, then assaulted and tasered her and asked for the code to the safe

Jewelers' Row, two blocks between Walnut and Chestnut from Seventh to Eighth, is a survivor from Philadelphia's heyday as the "workshop of the world." (CHRIS FASCENELLI / Staff Photographer)Read more

by WILLIAM BENDER, Daily News Staff Writer <a href="mailto:benderw@phillynews.com">benderw@phillynews.com</a>, 215-854-5255

Published Apr. 5, 2015, 3:00 a.m. ET

THEY LEFT HER at the cemetery, but not for dead.

Police say the three men who kidnapped, beat and tased a Jewelers Row employee Saturday afternoon finally dropped her off at a cemetery in Delaware County - only to return and kidnap her again, this time putting her in steel shackles as they withdrew money using her debit card.

The 53-year-old woman, who works at National Watch & Diamond Exchange, at 8th and Chestnut streets, was abducted about 4 p.m. Saturday at a parking garage across the street where her car was parked.

The men threw her in their van and demanded the keys to the store and the code to the safe, which she said she didn't know.

Over the next hour, police say, the men punched, kicked and choked her - and shot her seven times with a stun gun - while she had a hood over her head.

They eventually dumped her at Mount Lawn Cemetery in Darby Borough. But as she was trying to free herself from the zip ties they'd placed on her hands and wrists, the nightmare continued as they returned with shackles and put the hood back on.

Police say the men asked for her PIN and stopped about four times to withdraw cash. They made off with $200 and her handbag, phone, keys and credit cards before dropping her off at the same spot in the cemetery. She was able to get the hood off and walked to the road, where a driver called 9-1-1.

The victim was treated at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center for a concussion, eye hematoma, bruises and scratches.

Police say the perpetrators are three black men, one in his late 20s, 6 feet 3, muscular with a dark complexion, wearing black pants and a black hooded sweat jacket with a ski mask and sunglasses; one 6 feet, thin, with a gray hooded sweat jacket, black pants and a ski mask and sunglasses; and one 5 feet 5, heavy with a dark complexion, wearing dark pants with a dark jacket and hooded sweat jacket.

The van was a burgundy older-model Ford Econoline with white graffiti on the side and back.

Tipsters can contact Central Detectives 215-686-3093/3094 or call 9-1-1.