A 95-year-old Berkeley woman is warning others after she was robbed while walking on a Bay Area trail on Thanksgiving.
Frances Roberts was taking a stroll along the San Francisco Bay Trail in Berkeley on Thursday afternoon when she was approached by a dark car with a man, woman and children inside, KTVU reported.
"It was a beautiful day. I thought well, I'm not hungry. I'll go out and take a walk. And I thought it was the safest place to walk," Roberts told the station. However, she quickly realized this was not the case.
The man was asking Roberts the location of the nearest supermarket when the woman got out of the car and told Roberts she wanted to give her jewelry.
"She had a string of a necklace-like thing. And then she grabbed me around the neck, threw it over my head, " Roberts said, "What she was doing was taking my gold necklace off, but I didn't know it. I didn't feel it come off."
The woman grabbed Roberts' hand and attempted to pull off her two carat diamond ring. "She keeps twisting and turning and spitting on it," Roberts described. By the end of the ordeal, Roberts' hand was bleeding.
The thieves then fled the scene in their car. The stolen necklace and ring were heirlooms in Roberts' family that previously belonged to her late mother.
The woman was described as being around five feet tall, heavy-set, wearing a bandana, multiple scarves, layers of clothing and a floor length dress or skirt. A police officer told Roberts that a similar incident also occurred in the area.
KCBS Radio has reached out to the Berkeley Police Department for further information but has not yet heard back.
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