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‘He Grabbed Me and He Duct-taped Me,’ Alleged Assault Victim Speaks Out to Save Others

EXETER, Pa. — The elderly victim of an alleged home invasion and attempted sexual assault is speaking out about how she got through the attack. Exeter pol...

EXETER, Pa. -- The elderly victim of an alleged home invasion and attempted sexual assault is speaking out about how she got through the attack.

Exeter police say a man broke into her house and tied her up with duct tape early Thursday morning.

“I tried to run to the back door, he caught me.”

The 75-year-old reveals the details of a harrowing and horrifying ordeal she survived after a man broke into her house in Exeter.

She had gone down the street a little before 6 in the morning to feed some cats.

When she returned a man, identified by police as Joshua Perez of Pittston, was waiting inside her home. “I went in and he grabbed me and he duct-taped me. He was right inside the door. He duct-taped me, real hard, all around. He tried my face, I was screaming and screaming. I said 'I won't scream, I won't scream, just don't hurt me'.”

The woman says she tried to run but was caught by Perez so she took him into her living room, sat with him on her couch and asked him to pray with her and got him to untie her.

“I said I'm going to have a heart attack, so I pretended to have a heart attack. I pretended to throw up. So I said I need my heart medicine, so we went into the kitchen and I don't have heart medicine.”

The woman said she had chicken in water cooking in her oven and she told him it needed to come out.

“I took the lid off, pretended to move it, burned him all over his throat,” she said, motioning her throwing the pot of hot water and chicken.

Exeter police say the man then tried to sexually assault the woman but just relieved himself in front of her.

“That's when all the violence started, all horrendous violence.”

She got Perez to leave eventually and then called the police.

Perez was taken into custody shortly after and faces charges of burglary, rape, criminal trespass, and other offenses.

The woman says she hopes to save other women with her story.

“I was picking up anything I could that was heavy and trying to hit him in the head.”

Exeter police say Perez is accused of doing this to another person at their home in Pittston Wednesday night

He remains locked up in Luzerne County.

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