Elizabeth Hay teared up as she recalled the frightening moments when she came home Thursday afternoon to find her 80-year-old father tied up in their Wyandotte home by a man demanding money.
The 56-year-old woman said she had come back from the store with her father around 1:30 p.m. and she briefly went out to ride her bike when the intruder entered their home in the 1600 block of 16th St.
"He said that if I didn’t shut up and sit down, he was going to stab me right in the back," Hay said.
Hay did as she was told.The man taped her hands behind her back, but later freed her when she said she had some jewelry upstairs. He emptied the jewelry box of diamond rings, earrings, and even an anniversary ring that belonged to Hay's mother. Hay said he then led her outside to make sure she didn't call the cops on him.
"He was walking behind me and he kept on going, 'Come on, move it. Come on, hurry up. And he had a knife in my back,'" Hay described.
The robber let Hay go before running to the Sunoco gas station a block away, where surveillance cameras show a friend was waiting in a green Cavalier. Video clearly shows the suspect - a young, white man, wearing a black beanie and grey hood, carrying an orange drawstring backpack.
Hay said she's seen the man in the area before.
"He walked by here, I know that was him. He walked by here with the black hoodie sweatshirt on. He had a mask on over his face and he kept on looking towards here," she said.
Robert Hay said the man knew Elizabeth lived here, and he told Hay she was in a bike accident to get him to open the door.
Wyandotte police are investigating, and they're trying to quell fears the public is in danger.
"We just don’t have crime like that, you know random crime. It’s a very peaceful community and we really suspect that with some information that we have and with the detectives working on the case right now, we think that there may be some leads that will establish that this may not be a random attack," Chief Dan Grant said.
In the meantime, Elizabeth Hay and her neighbors are all on the lookout.
“I want him to get caught and go to jail," Hay said.
Anyone who might have seen the suspect with an orange drawstring backpack or any other information is asked to call Wyandotte police.
