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Two Elderly Women Attacked Within One Hour In Daytona Beach

Posted: 5:50 pm EDT September 17, 2008

A Daytona Beach armed robber seemed to think elderly women were a good target and he attacked two in the span of an hour Tuesday.

Police said he pushed the first woman he robbed her inside her home on South Seneca. The fall broke her pelvis. The second victim was at a Wachovia Bank on White Street.

Police have a couple of leads. Both women gave a very similar description of their attacker, who took both women by surprise.

In the bank case, the woman had just walked out of the bank with an envelope full of cash when she was attacked her from behind. It all happened out in the open in the middle of the afternoon.

Mildred Belanger, 74, had just walked through her home's front door when a man forced his way in behind her. He demanded money, police said, then threw Belanger to the ground, breaking her pelvis.

"She was real courageous. She was able to scoot to the family room and pick up the phone to call a relative to come over," explained Jimmie Flynt, Daytona Beach Police Department.

After running away with the woman's jewelry, police believe it was the same man who showed up about a mile down the road less than an hour later. He took $100 from 76-year-old Margaret Rance, who had just come out of the bank and, again, he ran from the scene.

"Yes, the detectives think that it's the same person," Flynt said.

In both cases the women described their attacker as a black man in his 30s, who was soft spoken, about five and a half feet tall, wearing a red shirt and dark pants.

A security camera may have caught one of the robberies. Police are still working on going through that tape. It was just a week ago they arrested two teens in the same neighborhood for similar attacks on elderly women.
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