Police in Richmond, California, say a man broke into the apartment of the nation's oldest park ranger and after beating her, stole a commemorative coin given to her by President Obama.
Just after midnight on Monday, Betty Reid Soskin, 94, says she woke up to see a man inside her second floor apartment. He was able to get in through the sliding glass door, and after she tried to call 911 on her cellphone, he grabbed it from her and started to punch her. "I fully expected he was going to kill me," she told KTVU. "He doubled up his fist and hit me a couple of times on the sides of my face with all his might." Soskin was able to break free and locked herself in the bathroom. The assailant fled with her iPad, laptop, jewelry, cellphone, and several commemorative coins, including one Obama gave to Soskin after she introduced him at the national Christmas tree lighting ceremony in December.
The president has been notified about the crime, and he said he will send Soskin another coin with the presidential seal, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Soskin works five days a week at the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, and she is beloved by visitors and her colleagues. "She's doing fine, physically," her supervisor, Tom Leatherman, told the Chronicle. "But emotionally, it's difficult."
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