A Daly City grandmother is recovering after her family said that she was choked, beaten and robbed of her life savings.
A home surveillance video showed a man dressed in a construction vest, and a hard hat and carrying a laptop, approaching a Daly City home Wednesday.
“He was pretending to be someone from PG&E, to try and trick my grandmother into letting him to the house,” said Skylar, the victim’s granddaughter.
Skylar, who asked NBC Bay Area not to use her last name to protect her grandmother, said at the same time, two other men hopped a fence into the backyard of the house. As her 70-year-old grandma ran to the front door, the man in the utility worker's uniform entered her home.
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In the video, you can hear Skylar’s grandmother screaming as the suspect dragged her chihuahua and then, attacked her.
“She was trapped," she said. "When she tried to scream for help, they choked her and beat her. And then, they proceeded to ransack the entire house and stole everything of value, including my grandmother's jewelry and her life savings."
Skylar said that her grandmother was beaten so badly, that she was taken to the hospital.
“She's completely traumatized. This incident took away her sense of safety and security. They attacked her inside her own home, where she thought she was safe. And that is something I really want to emphasize because these men are cowards. They are targeting the elderly,” she said.
Skylar said she is speaking out to make people aware that criminals are posing as utility workers. Skylar added the suspects tried to break into two nearby homes before they targeted her grandmother.
Video from a relative’s dash cam showed the men leaving the home with what appeared to be the victim’s belongings.
Daly City police said they are investigating the case. Now, Skylar is hoping Bay Area seniors will be on high alert and the suspects will be caught.
“Just atrocious. I cannot believe that people will target the elderly. It breaks my heart to see my grandmother the way that she is. These men are just the lowest scum of the earth, in my opinion. It burns me up from the inside out that this happened,” she said.
