‘I’m HIV-Positive’: Elderly Woman Lies About Status To Avoid Being Raped [Video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcQ5KFW6TsE
A Pennsylvania octogenarian’s lie-laced response to a man looking to rape her involved a threat of him contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
In reality, 88-year-old Helen Reynolds does not suffer from the malady, as the New York Post notes, but the Parkesburg resident used the health excuse to deter the forceful advances of a would-be attacker who made his way into her home by claiming to be a thirsty apartment maintenance worker on February 17, as documents related to the case state.
88-Year-Old Woman Scared Would-Be Rapist Off With HIV Lie! https://t.co/HQrgDEdNnO pic.twitter.com/8EL4Ln1KOO
— Grandpapi (@papi_vee) March 6, 2017
“He pushed himself in,” Ms. Reynolds relayed to CBS Philadelphia, before finding her purse and rummaging through its contents to snatch a measly $40.
“I said, ‘Would you do this to your mother to bother her like you are doing me?”
Possibly as a response to her inquiry, the assaulter purportedly then bound the elderly woman’s hands, head, and mouth with duct tape, effectively silencing her for what was reportedly about to occur.
“The man, who appeared to be in his upper teens to early 20s, then forced her into the bedroom,” the Philadelphia Inquirer further explains, “where he threw her onto the bed” and placed a box of condoms onto a nearby nightstand.
After removing both his and Ms. Reynolds’ pants, the street-smart old woman then went on to play her verbal ruse.
“He looked around [the room] and I said to him, ‘before you do anything, I have HIV and my husband died of it,'” she remarked.
A pause in shock from the supposed sexual deviant then led to his victim kicking him, “where it hurt the most,” which ultimately sent him running off into the bathroom of her home, before making a full-on getaway.
“When I [lied] and said [I had HIV],” the woman recalled, “he just walked out of the bedroom.”
“That’s the comment that saved my life.”
The entire ordeal, including the HIV lie that stopped Ms. Reynolds from being raped, was reported to have gone on for nearly three hours by members of the Parkesburg Borough Police Department. Officers have since ruled out any connection to another claimed assault of a nearby Chester County resident who was supposedly beaten, choked, bound, and stuffed inside of a closet by an unknown assailant for four days, before finally being rescued by her daughter-in-law.
Just as with Ms. Reynolds’ case, the purported victim was said to be of a certain elder age, 77, with the attacker being reported as an escaped 17-year-old male patient of a behavioral modification center. He has since been recaptured and charged accordingly for the crime. Police are currently looking to see if the boy is connected to similar illegal acts within the area.
After the attacker departed her apartment, Ms. Reynolds says that she was able to chew off the duct tape from around her mouth and hands and call for assistance from a neighbor who lived a few doors down. She has since described the suspect as being a tall black male in his early 20s, who was wearing blue jeans and a gray hooded sweatshirt during the violent interaction.
“It was all about me and my God,” she humbly expressed about being able to save herself.
“He helped me out.”
Suffice to say, Ms. Reynolds feels quite a bit differently about the purported suspect who came into her home last month.
“I have nothing good to say about him,” she said to Sky News.
“Nothing at all. Put him in jail, and leave the sucker there.”
Law officials from the Parkesburg Borough Police Department have since asked the public to please provide them with any information that they may have about the supposed rape suspect. Ms. Reynolds hopes that the story of HIV lie helps other victims of rape to fight back in any way that they can despite any possible physical limitations.
[Featured Image by coehm/iStock]
