What to Know
- Maria Vasquez, 93, had just cashed a social security check when a man lifted the money from her bra
- Surveillance video shows the suspect walk up to her and take the money
- Vasquez says she doesn't know how she'll pay her rent, water and electricity or buy food
Maria Vasquez spends much of her time in bed, her frail bones unable to support her for long.
The 93-year-old East Harlem woman was robbed Wednesday on a rare outing in her wheelchair to the bank and a nearby store.
Vasquez, whose image is blurred in the store’s surveillance video released by police, says the man grabbed $600 in Social Security money that she’d placed in her bra for safe keeping. He scratched her in the process.
She says she yelled, “They’re stealing my money! They’re stealing my money!”
But the alleged thief had already run off. Vasquez said she initially saw him watching her and her health aide while she cashed the check at a bank on East 116th Street. She believes he followed her into an apparel store a few doors down.
Vasquez said the money was to pay for rent, water, electricity and food.
Local
“I haven’t paid the rent, the water, the electricity,” she told NBC 4 New York Thursday. “What am I going to do now?”
After releasing surveillance images of the suspect, police on Friday morning charged Broyoan Lopez, 26, of Brooklyn, with two counts of robbery as well as one count each of grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. Information on an attorney for Lopez wasn't immediately available.
It's not clear if police recovered the money from Lopez but she received an outpouring of support after the media reports of the robbery. One of the owners of the store where Vasquez was robbed presented her with an envelope of cash to replace the money that was stolen.
"It really bothered everyone here," said Josh Cohen, one of the owners of the store, Regine's. "I hope it makes her happy."
To make her feet happy too, the store gave Vasquez the slippers she had originally gone there to buy.
And the mayor of West New York, New Jersey went to East Harlem to give Vasquez a check for $1,000 personally donated by him and his staff.
"You hear stories about people hurting people. This is a story about people helping people, and it feels good," said Felix Roque.
Online, a complete stranger organized a GoFundMe page that raised nearly $2,000 before it stopped accepting donations.
Vasquez, who has survived three strokes and lives in public housing, said in Spanish she appreciates the unexpected support and kindness shown to her.
