93-Year-Old Wheelchair-Bound Woman Robbed in East Harlem Store

abcnews.go.com ^ | September 9, 2016 | J.J. GALLAGHER

[Morgana]

A 93-year-old woman robbed in East Harlem says she doesn't know how she'll pay her bills this month after a thief ran off with $600 in cash she had just taken out of the bank.

"I feel terrible, and just keep thinking about it," Maria Vasquez told WABC, a local ABC affiliate.

She says she planned to use the money to pay for her monthly bills and now worries about how she'll get by, WABC reports.

"I need that money, because my husband passed away seven years ago. Until the money comes next month, I'm not sure how I'm going to pay the bills," Vasquez said.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Cash ?

[NEMDF]

Right. How was she going to pay her bills with cash? She’ll have $100,000 in a gofundme account by the end of the weekend, I bet.

[Morgana]

Yes. She just got it from bank to pay bill and was going to buy some shoes. She probably so old she did not trust banks after the stock market crash of the 1929. Still some who remember that. Can’t say as I blame her. Now we have these thugs who don’t respect their elders.

[Enchante]

Some vermin just need capital punishment, even for such “lesser” crimes as theft. This is so far beyond the pale.....

[ETL]

Cash for money orders? Maybe she still pays her bills by mail. Then again, if she has a bank account, why not write checks?

[Morgana]

I thought of that. That’s if she has any children/grandchildren watching out for her. Seems as if she does not. She was alone in that video when it happened.

[mainestategop]

I thought NYC was supposed to be the safest city in America now that its illegal to have guns there. I guess not.

Thanks a bunch Giulianni and Bloomberg!!

[Morgana]

Some places you can still pay bills by money. Like she should pay her rent by cash and get a receipt for it. Plus I can still pay my water/sewer by cash at the city all office.

As for all other bills there are pay centers around town that I can pay anything and I do mean anything by cash electroniclly. Gas, water, eletric, visa, mastercard, internet, cell phone, you name it. Just bring in the bill and cash and pay.

[miss marmelstein]

In Manhattan, you can go to the utility companies (they have outlets) and pay cash. Some people still work on a cash-only basis.

[ETL]

Or maybe she pays her bills in person at a local ConEd or telephone company office, or even at a check cashing place. Some people actually do that.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Thieves don’t care if you are struggling to survive. They will steal from anyone. It is one of the reasons they are despised so much.

[ETL]

Some people still work on a cash-only basis.

Particularly people in her general age group.

[ETL]

Saw your reply after posting mine. :)

[miss marmelstein]

My mother loved to keep cash in the house at 90. It made me very uncomfortable. She used checks to pay her bills but in Manhattan people still walk to the telephone company to pay!

[miss marmelstein]

When I had my first job and a tiny apt., that’s what I did. Would walk to ConEd, walk to the telephone company. I had no credit cards and this was before ATMs.

[ETL]

Hopefully, she’ll end up with 10 times that amount or more.

[miss marmelstein]

I hope she does. Poor lady.

[Morgana]

Once you've been doing something all your life that's more or less the way you do it. Kinda like a habit. Every first Monday of the month go down to the telephone company and pay that bill. No though otherwise that we could now go online and do it in two minutes. Then again, the old timers that still do it that way, that is their way to socialize with everyone. We have forgotten in this computerized world. I understand people who do what they do. However people like this Grandma needs someone protecting her when she is out.

[PghBaldy]

She will have $50-100,000 in a week.