Woman in wheelchair robbed at city ATM
Connie Ruffalo stopped her wheelchair Thursday on the East Beau Street sidewalk in Washington to put away her bank card and $30 she just withdrew from the automated teller machine when a man snatched it from her and ran.
“He had to have been right behind me. He reached over my shoulder and grabbed the money,” said the Belle Vernon resident. “He tried but he didn’t get the (bank) card.”
The robbery occurred just before 1 p.m. near the PNC Bank branch at the intersection of West Beau Street and Shaffer Avenue.
Ruffalo, a nursing home transition coordinator at advocacy group Tri County Patriots for Independent Living, had gotten the cash out for her cab ride home.
“I was just mad,” she said. “I yelled, ‘What are you doing?’ When I got into the building- that’s when it hit me.”
Although she didn’t see his face, Ruffalo got a good look at the man’s clothes. She said he was a white male in his 40s to 50s with a stocky build, had short, salt-and-pepper hair and wore a short-sleeve, light-blue shirt with diagonal cream stripes, blue shorts and tennis shoes.
“It’s not a lot of money and I’m not going to get it back, but it’s the principal of the matter,” Ruffalo said. “At least I wasn’t hurt.”
Washington police are investigating. Officer Kent Mitchell said camera footage from PNC will be obtained and viewed.