Elderly Chicago woman tied up, had mouth taped shut during home invasion

An elderly woman feared she would be killed in cold blood inside her own house during a home invasion Thursday night.

The crime took place in Chicago’s Park Manor neighborhood on the South Side.

Geraldine Johnson sat on her front porch, shaking and in shock over what just happened.

“That they was going to kill me, that they was going to kill me,” she said.

Around 6:30 pm, the 74-year-old woman who lives with her son was home alone near 68th and Prairie.

"I was sitting there watching Wheel of Fortune and here they come up the hallway,” Johnson said.

Three young men walked up the back stairs to the second story and climbed in through a window.

“They say you know what this is? I say no…we are not going to hurt you and that's when they taped my mouth and my wrists,” Johnson said.

She says as she sat in her recliner, the suspects, each armed with a knife, stole her son's DJ equipment, at least two televisions and a laptop.

When the suspects left to take their loot to the car, Johnson escaped.

“I hit that front door, turned that doorknob and down the stairs I went,” she said.

Johnson ran to the first floor and found her neighbor.

"She had tape around her mouth and she was tied up like this and she said they are robbing me upstairs,” said neighbor Launteen Starnes.

Johnson ran to a neighbor's home and Starnes dialed 911.

The three young men drove away in a grey vehicle.

“It's terrible that's all I can say, I am just lost for words.”