Kidnapped Carjacking Victim Opens Up About Ordeal

After last week’s brutal carjacking and kidnapping on a typically quiet Bensonhurst intersection (Harway Avenue and Bay 41st Street), the victim is ready to speak about what happened to her.

The New York Times has interviewed the 56-year-old woman — identified as Yelena, a nurse — who was left with a shattered nose and cheek bones following her ordeal. In a riveting piece, “Crime Scene” reporter Michael Wilson opens with those terrifying 15 minutes that Yelena was trapped in her own car with her assailants:

“Stay off the Belt,” the woman thought in silence as the man driving her vehicle approached the busy Belt Parkway.

“Please, stay off the Belt.”

She had a good reason. “It will be very difficult for me to escape,” she explained later.

The woman, Yelena, asked that her last name be withheld as she described the events of last week, when she was carjacked.

Yelena, a 56-year-old Russian nurse, lives in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. She drove home on Dec. 29, parking a little before 8 p.m., and noticed, but paid no mind to, a couple walking across the street.

The article continues to describe how cops tracked the suspects, a 31-year-old seasoned criminal and his teen accomplice, for five days through East New York and Flushing, Queens, until they were finally apprehended in Bed-Stuy. Wilson also spoke to a second carjacking victim, the 84-year-old man who was assaulted by the pair in Queens while they were on the lam.

Many neighbors were shaken by news of the violence, considering Bensonhurst is a typically safe neighborhood. In the aftermath of the incident, Assemblyman Dov Hikind pointed to a “rampant spate of violence” and urged vigilance on the part of residents. Other politicians — including Councilman Mark Treyger — commended the 62nd Precinct and the NYPD for their swift police work. The 62nd Precinct’s Commanding Officer Anthony Sanseverino assured residents that the crime, while concerning, was an isolated incident and not indicative of an overall rise in violence in the neighborhood.

Meanwhile, Yelena — who underwent a series of facial surgeries this week — is still recovering, reports The Times:

Back in Bensonhurst, Yelena nursed her wounded face. As the New Year’s Eve party approached, she thought about skipping it, but she ended up going.

She wore a Venetian mask. “Life goes on,” Yelena said.

Read the full New York Times story here.