News of another violent crime out of Philadelphia... Last week, a 39-year-old Asian businesswoman was sexually assaulted and beaten inside her Northeast home: Cops: Woman raped, robbed in Far Northeast home. But with her hands and legs bound in plastic cuffs, she managed to shuffle and roll her way outside to the sidewalk and cry for help.
The victim and her husband, both Vietnamese, work at a beauty salon in a different neighborhood. As with other recent home invasion robbery cases in the area, investigators are working on the theory that the woman was targeted because she is an Asian business owner:
Police describe the attacker as a black man in his 30s, about 6-feet-1, weighing 200 to 230 pounds, with a light-to-medium complexion and a thin mustache. He was dressed in black, with black glasses and a black-and-gray knit cap, and carried a black JanSport backpack.
In similar cases, authorities have found that criminals admitted targeting Asian business owners for home-invasion robberies because they believe the immigrants carry lots of cash and may not report the crimes.
The attack occurred about 2:30 p.m. on Lester Road near Medford, in a generally safe, tidy residential neighborhood in the city's Parkwood Manor section.
The neighbors said they heard that the attacker forced his way into the victim's home from the back deck after he saw her out there. The husband had left the home a little while earlier to get their daughters from school.
Anyone with information on the attacker is asked to call the Special Victims Unit at 215-685-3251. More here: Police Release Suspect Sketch in Northeast Rape, Robbery.