Anthony Puzio of Ozone Park had a rough Saturday morning. Home invaders tied up the 76-year-old veteran and punched and pistol-whipped him in search of riches he says he doesn't have. When a masked gunman first burst through his second-floor window around 6 a.m., he tried to fight back, but it was no use.
"He started punching, he hit me once over here with a gun, and punched me on the side," a battered Puzio told CBS. "I was struggling with him. But what am I going to do? I'm a 76-year-old man, he's about 30, maybe, 29."
The goon demanded to know where cash was stashed, but as Puzio puts it, "I got no money." Downstairs, the intruder let in a man and a woman, and after two hours, they left and he was able to wriggle free of the zip-tie around his legs. Hands still tied, fractured nose bloody, he saw two sanitation workers and ran up to them. They cut him loose.
Puzio was surprisingly peppy during his interview with CBS after being released from Jamaica Hospital. It's not clear what the immediate context of the remark was, but at some point he told the assembled camera crews outside his 101st Street house, "I don't take crap from nobody," and judging by how agitated he appears, he meant it.
Police have not made an arrest in the case, and Puzio did not get a good look at any of the intruders' faces. The trio made off with his wallet, $25, a TV, and other items.
