STERLING, Mass. (WHDH) — Police are searching for three suspects who are accused of tying up and robbing a 70-year-old woman in her Sterling home before stealing her car.
The woman was alone in her home on Stephanie Anne Lane in Sterling when police said three men wearing masks entered her home, bound her with duct tape in her bedroom and threatened her with a knife. Police said the house’s doors were unlocked.
In 911 calls released by the police department, the woman can be heard saying that three men just left and took her car, adding, “they haven’t been gone long.”
Sterling Police Chief Gary Chamberland said the men asked the woman where the safe was, though there was no safe in the house. The suspects allegedly searched the home for a safe and left with around $1,000 in cash. Police said they also cut the house’s phone lines.
Police said the woman was able to free herself and called 911 when the suspects left her house just after 10 a.m. Tuesday. The woman was not injured and refused any medical treatment.
“She was remarkably calm,” Chamberland said of the woman.
Sterling residents are shocked that the robbery was able to occur in broad daylight.
The woman told police two of the suspects were wearing black ski masks and the third had a skeleton mask on. All three wore gloves. One suspect is described as being 5 feet 8 inches tall, the other 5 feet 9 inches tall.
Police said the suspects fled the scene in the woman’s car, a 2004 black Cadillac DeVille. The car was found on the side of the highway, seven miles from the house, but the suspects are still on the loose. They are also investigating to see if a fourth person was possibly involved.
Police do not believe this was a random attack but are unsure why the house was targeted. Anyone with any information on the suspects is asked to contact police immediately.
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