A 99-year-old woman and her son said they were duct-taped to chairs and robbed by three men who forced their way into a southwest suburban home looking for money.
"I was in the chair. They just pushed me back and put the tape around my wrists and around my legs and told me to be quiet or they'd kill me. So I just sat there and prayed," James Budzinski, 62, recalled Thursday, one day after the attack.
Budzinski and his mother live in the 700 block of Washington Street in Romeoville. It was shortly after 2 p.m. when someone knocked on the door and told them he needed to check the home's water pressure.
But when the man could not produce an ID, Budzinski tried to close the door and threatened to call police. Two other men approached and the three forced the door open, knocking the elderly woman to the floor, he said.
"He wanted money. Then he slapped me on the face. He says,'Where's your money.' I say, 'Well, there's an art box in the closet on top,' and that was garage sale money," said 99-year-old Ann Budzinski.
She said she was picked up and put in a chair and had duct tape put over her mouth.
"It scared me but it didn't hurt. I guess I felt kind of numb," she said.
The three attackers were described as Hispanics men in their 20s. The victims described specific types of clothing: one wore a black baseball cap with flashing lights on the front, a white hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans. The second wore a black baseball cap with a wing symbol on the front, a black hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans, black sunglasses and brown cloth gloves.
Anyone with information should call police 815-886-7219.
