An elderly Scotia woman is recovering at Ellis Hospital after village police say she was attacked, tied up, and threatened with a knife inside her own home.
Police confirm that the victim is Elisabeth Gelber - a woman who is in her 80s.
Investigators say that Gelber caught a man who was burglarizing her Sunnyside Road home.
Gelber shares the Scotia home with her husband, Julius Gelber, who is a retired doctor in his early 90s.
A Scotia Police officer stood guard outside that home until early Monday evening.
Police say the man who invaded the home less than one day earlier is 45-year-old Juan McCray of Schenectady.
Investigators say McCray attacked Gelber when she caught him inside her home.
He allegedly tied her up and threatened her with a steak knife before he allegedly stole electronics, credit cards, a purse, and Gelber's Subaru Forrester.
"The car alarm went on longer than it should have in this kind of a neighborhood so I just started turning back to come this way back toward the house and heard a car peel out," says Bill Vititow, whose family has lived in Scotia for the past seven years.
Vititow says he reported to police what he saw while he was walking his dog some time after 9:00 p.m. on Sunday.
"All I could give them was the sillhouette shape of a car," Vititow tells us. "It looked like a four-door hatchback. It wasn't a big, powerful car. It was working hard to go down the road."
Police say the stolen Subaru Forrester turned up in Schenectady on Monday morning.
Their investigator led to McCray who is already on parole.
Scotia Police arrested McCray and are charging him with burglary and robbery.
Investigators expect that the list of charges against McCray will grow.
He is being held without bail at the Schenectady County Jail.
Police say there is no reason for village residents to worry.
They say Sunday night's attack was not random.
"That's scary," says Vititow. "Scotia's a very peaceful community. We don't have this kind of activity in our neighborhoods. Scotia's a great place to live."
