94-Year-Old Park Ranger Beaten; Robbed of Presidential Coin
Betty Reid Soskin (Image Source: CBS San Francisco)
June 27th, a man broke into the apartment of the nation’s oldest park ranger, Betty Reid Soskin, 94, and brutally beat her. Soskin was sleeping at the time of the break-in, and she woke up to find the suspect in her apartment. The sorry waste of oxygen then beat Soskin and robbed her of her valuables, including her presidential coin for being the oldest U.S. park ranger.
KTVU reports:
“I fully expected he was going to kill me. He doubled up his fist and hit me a couple of times on the sides of my face with all his might,” says Betty Reid Soskin. She only spoke to KTVU about her attack.
Her face is badly bruised, but she wouldn’t let us show it on camera.
“I don’t even like to look at myself in the mirror at this point because I still have a couple black eyes and one is still marked. My lips were split in a couple of places,” says Soskin.
Richmond police say around 1:45 a.m. Monday. A man broke into Soskin’s second floor apartment, entering through a sliding glass door. He later made his way into her room where she was asleep.
“Something woke me and I looked over and there was a man standing with a small flashlight,” says Soskin.
She then grabbed her cell phone, but the suspect took it from her. The two struggled and then he dragged her from the bed through the hallway. “I was terrified. I was terrified. Nothing else I could think of was to scream and scream and scream,” she said.The man hit her several times, but somehow she managed to get away, locking herself into the bathroom for about 45 minutes. All the while, the suspect took her items. But Soskin’s wasn’t giving up. She prepared to defend herself with an iron. “I plugged it in and set it to linen which is the hottest. I figured if he would come in I would brand him and that would mark him for the police,” says Soskin.
The suspect managed to get away with an iPad, laptop and cellphone. He also took some commemorative coins including one given to her by President Barack Obama for being the oldest park ranger in the U.S.
Soskin says most items she can live without, but the coin she received from the president in December is dear to her.“If I can get that coin back I think I can forgive anything,” says Soskin.
Maybe Soskin could forgive him, but we won’t. Here’s to hoping that the douche-canoe is located and gets locked up for a long time.
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Lance Freedlund
Here’s to hoping the punishment is much worse than just getting locked up.
Linda Hampton
May he get what he deserves!!
Steve
The other inmates won’t like a woman beater in jail with them. Good luck asshole!