PHILADELPHIA -
When a strange man claiming to Joan Stratz's landlord tried busting into her house on Emerson Wednesday night, she kept a close eye on him while calling the cops and hiding out.
"I was standing behind the curtain so he couldn't see me I was petrified," she said.
You'd be scared, too, considering the suspect shattered her front window with a hammer trying to break-in.
Not to mention, the same man who targeted the 78-year-old woman may be responsible for brutally beating 86-year-old Eva Rulevskaya.
Early Wednesday morning, a burglar broke into Rulevskaya's house on nearby Algon Avenue.
Rulevskaya used her life alert system to call for help but not before the suspect hit her in the face, breaking her eye socket.
The Russian immigrant is still in the hospital recovering from that broken bone around her eye.
"It's vicious! Absolutely a vicious horrible crime," exclaimed her granddaughter Ilona Burik.
He kept on saying, "Let me in," recalled Stratz.
After trying to break into Stratz's home Wednesday night, police captured the 19-year-old suspect with a hammer and gloves, cowering behind a car in the 2200 block of Strahle.
The 78-year-old retiree is hoping police and the courts don't show him any mercy, especially since he may be responsible for at least two other crimes in the Rhawnhurst area.
"Golden years?" Stratz questions. "Right, no golden years. Instead you really live in fear."
Worthy has not yet been charged with the Algon Avenue attack, but police say the two cases are similar in nature.
