A Staten Island grandma beaten by two heartless muggers recounted Wednesday the vicious blows that left her with a fractured skull and a bloodied, swollen face.
Nursing two black eyes, a broken nose and a 2-inch gash on her forehead, Linda Naimo, 75, described how she and her husband were set upon while entering the foyer of their apartment building Sunday night.
"I remember the beating," she told the Daily News in an exclusive interview from her room at Richmond University Medical Center. "It was going so fast. It was: Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The robbers - a man and a woman - saw the elderly couple as easy marks, cops said. But the brutal attack netted a measly $18.
"I never hurt nobody," said the shaken grandma. "My leg hurts. My finger's broke."
She also suffered brain hemorrhaging, a blood clot and a busted lip. Doctors needed stitches to close the gaping wound on her forehead.
"I think he had something in his hands that cut me like this," she said of the male attacker.
She and her husband, Joseph Naimo, had just closed their thrift shop and returned to their Tompkinsville apartment building about 7:30 p.m. Sunday when the muggers struck.
"All of a sudden, whoever it was behind me, they jumped on us and threw us on the floor in the hallway," said Joseph, who had celebrated his 81st birthday earlier that day.
Joseph said the robbers, clad in black hoodies, demanded money. But he told them he had none, handing over an empty wallet. The male attacker then rifled through his pockets, only to find the $18. Enraged at the small amount, the brute unleashed a barrage of punches.
"He threw the wallet on the floor," said Joseph, who suffered scratches and bruises. "He never stopped beating after that."
The couple's son, Rocco, who also lives in the building, heard the commotion and raced to their aid. "I heard my mother and father screaming," Rocco said. "So I ran downstairs to help them and then they started beating me up, too."
The son said he managed to free himself from the muggers' clutches and ran to his apartment to call 911. The robbers took off, cops said.
"I feel terrible that this happened to my parents," the son said, distraught. "I'm mentally hurt, physically hurt - there's a lot of pain for me right now."
The NYPD is offering a $12,000 reward for information leading to an arrest, cops said.
"I don't know why someone would do something like this to elderly people," said Gina Naimo, the couple's granddaughter. "If they knew they didn't have the money, why didn't you just leave?"
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