Great-Grandmother Gets Mugged, Black Eye In Lynn

November 17, 2010 9:21 AM

Geneva Sozanski

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Heard On WBZ NewsRadio 1030, Local, News, Seen On WBZ-TV, Watch + Listen

LYNN (CBS) – An 89-year-old great-grandmother from Lynn has a message to fellow senior citizens, after she was mugged and beaten outside her home.

It happened in broad daylight Monday afternoon. Geneva Sozanski walked outside of her Eastern Ave. home with her cane in one hand, and her purse in the other.

“I’m going up my driveway and all of a sudden I feel something pulling at my left arm – that’s where I carry my purse,” she recalled. “Next thing I know, I’m on the sidewalk.”

Sozanski speaks with Carl Stevens

Geneva doesn’t remember the attack; it left her unconscious, bruised and bloody on the sidewalk. A passerby saw her on the ground and stopped to help. Two days later, she’s out of the hospital, with her black eye still swollen and two stitches in her head.

Sera Congi reports

“You never know when you’re gonna die,” she said Wednesday, reflecting on the attack.

“If he had said ‘I want your purse’, I would have given it to him. I didn’t want to go through all of this.”

Sozanski’s sister, Helen McSweeney, who lives in the same house, says the mugger is a monster.

“When I saw my sister … I tell you I was practically in a state of collapse.” But McSweeney says her sister is tough – and won’t let this experience keep her from being active. “She’s very pretty for 89. She’s vital, she drives, cooks, takes care of her husband.”

Geneva hopes her story can be a lesson to other seniors – not to let their guard down, even in their own neighborhood in the middle of the day.

“I can’t believe that this happened in front of my own house in the afternoon. But anyway, that’s life,” she said matter-of-factly.

“I’m not afraid, because if you’re afraid then they’re the winners and I’m the loser. And I’m not going to be a loser.”

WBZ News Radio’s Carl Stevens and WBZ-TV’s Sera Congi contributed to this report.

Great Grandmother Gets Mugged, Black Eye In Lynn

Shawn Thomas

Just another reason to stay away from Lynn. Whoever did this is a lowlife. Probably some crackhead or illegal. Was it worth the $5 in change she had in her purse?
Fatty_Arbuckle

Wonder when white guys will start stealing old black women’s purses so that we can all finally be equal

StitchinPal

Where in this story does it say that it was a black or hispanic person?

Former Lynner

it’s implied

Donna

You know what anyone black or white – whatever race, what happened to this great grandmother was just very wrong. I hope whoever it is gets caught very quickly and dealt with very harshly..
susan

Another reason why drugs are so bad and what it does to a person…The lowest form of life hurting this sweet, elderly lady….I hope she gets better and it is heartening to know that she has supportive family members…..for that, she is a lucky lady…
AMY~BRAINTREE

WHAT A SHAME….MY HEART GOES OUT TO HER….WHAT A DISGRACE PEOPLE ARE AND HOW RESPECT HAS REALLY GONE OUT THE WINDOW!!! BUT YET HER ATTITUDE DOESN’T SURPRISE ME…IF SHE WERE TO FACE THE COWARD WHO DID THIS TO HER SHE WOULD FORGIVE THEM….SAD YOU HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THEM BEING SICK OR GETTING HURT BY JUST GETTING OLD…NOT FOR A COWARD TO HURT THEM FOR NOTHING!!! OVER NOTHING AND THIS ANGERS ME….IT HURTS THAT HUMAN BEINGS ARE REALLY WORSE THEN ANIMALS….BUT THEY GET ABUSED…LIKE CHILDREN AND ELDERLY PEOPLE!!!!
Can’t Stand Ignorant people

Nice to mention race Fatty…..yeah ignorance like yours I’m sure got you far in life!!!!
Bruce

If they find this loser do it the old fashioned way…no court time…let her sons and grandsons handle it
MARYJANE

My mother lived and worked in Lynn for 50 plus years. She didn’t have a license and walked every where ’til she retired @ 85. I was always afraid that something would happen to her. She lived in, what became the “Bad” section of Lynn. If someone asked for money on the street, she’d stop and give them some. I was always afraid what happened to that poor woman would have happened to my mother. Lynn is a crime ridded hell hole!
BabyLata

First I love the way this woman looks at life and the insident…she didn’t say what color the person was and all intelligent ppl know it could happen to anyone. I find this repulsive.the person who did it he/she could have killed this woman. And race has nothing to do with it….drug take hold and make people of ALL COLORS do horrendous things.