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The nation's oldest full-time park ranger was brutally attacked in her San Francisco Bay Area home after a robber broke in and stole a coin she received from President Barack Obama.
According to Fox News, 94-year-old Betty Reid Soskin, who works as an interpretive ranger at the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, Calif., was sleeping Monday when the intruder forced his way into her home. Soskin grabbed her cellphone to call for help, but the robber punched her several times and dragged her from her bedroom before he beat her again, Richmond Police Lt. Felix Tan said during a press conference Thursday.
Soskin, who introduced the president at a National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony at the White House last December, crawled to the bathroom, where she locked herself in until the intruder left.
"I fully expected he was going to kill me," Soskin told KTVU. "He doubled up his fist and hit me a couple of times on the sides of my face with all his might.
"Nothing else I could think of was to scream and scream and scream," Soskin told the TV station.
Soskin suffered bruises to her face and a busted lip. Authorities added that the thief made off with Soskin's cellphone, iPad, laptop, camera, jewelry and the coin the president gave her to honor her achievements.
Soskin told the news station that she doesn't care if she gets the other items back, but the coin means a lot to her.
"If I can get that coin back, I think I can forgive anything," she told KTVU.
Park Superintendent Tom Leatherman told Fox News that the White House is working on a replacement coin for Soskin.