House cleaner robbed in broad daylight in Denver, steps from her client’s home
A house cleaner was attacked and robbed Friday morning while on her way to a client’s home in Denver, according to the victim and security video of the incident.
49-year-old Yesenia Hernandez said she was walking from her car to a client’s home near East 17th Avenue and North Emerson Street around 9 a.m.
Home security footage showed a man wearing an orange shirt and a wide-brim hat approaching Hernandez from behind before grabbing her. The two struggled as Hernandez screamed for help.
“I turned my face, and I see him, and he’s fighting with me a lot,” Hernandez said. “We take like 15 seconds. I don’t want to leave my keys, so I fight with him.”
The video cuts off after about 10 seconds, but Hernandez said the encounter continued. She told FOX31 the suspect reached for what she believed was a knife before pushing her to the ground.
The man then took her car keys and drove off in her vehicle, she said. Inside the car were her purse, credit cards and driver’s license.
“He’s waiting for somebody. He had planned,” Hernandez said. “So I think I was there maybe in the wrong time and the wrong day.”
She said neighbors came to help after the attack, and she called 911. Hernandez did not suffer any major injuries but said she’s shaken up after the attack.
“I’ve never been attacked like that in my life,” she said. “And I was working, I’m not in the nightclub, I’m not drinking in the street before the attack, I just go to clean that apartment.”
The incident has left Hernandez without a car for her cleaning business, which she said she has operated since 2003. Still, she plans to continue to run her business.
“I don’t know how, but I have to work,” she said.
Denver police did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday. Hernandez is asking anyone who recognizes the man in the video to contact authorities.
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