An elderly ex-nun returning home from a bus trip to the Atlantic City slots was mugged by an Upper West Side punk – who was chased and tackled by her fleet-footed doorman, police said.
“Lincoln is a hero,” Mary Chichester, 71, said yesterday of her doorman, Lincoln Rodriguez. “I think what he did was just incredible.”
Chichester had spent Thursday in Atlantic City on one of her semi-annual jaunts to play the 25-cent slot machines and stroll along the boardwalk.
She returned on a city bus at 12:35 a.m. Friday and said she was walking home when a man accosted her about a block away from her apartment at 370 Riverside Drive and uttered one word: “Money.”
“I just thought he was asking for money. I didn’t realize I was being mugged,” said Chichester, who left her religious order 40 years ago and who now is an editor for a pharmaceutical company.
Chichester said that when she tried to walk by him, the man punched her face.
He then yanked a $12, gold-colored necklace off her neck and tried to grab her purse, which contained $6, she said.
Rodriguez said he saw Chichester struggling with her attacker and screaming for help.
He told The Post that he took off after the thug with a single thought in his mind: “I’m beating your ass – you don’t do that to an old lady.”
The robber fled east on West 109th Street, and Rodriguez caught up on West 110th Street and punched and subdued him.
“If I knew he had punched her in the face, I would have hit him harder,” Rodriguez said.
With the help of his friend, who had followed, Rodriguez held the man on the ground until cops arrived and arrested him.
The suspect was identified by cops as Benjamin Stephens, 43, of Hempstead, L.I.
Stephens, who was arraigned Friday, has been charged with robbery, assault and criminal possession of stolen property. He was held on $150,000 bond.
Chichester was taken to St. Luke’s Hospital for treatment for minor injuries, including a bruised neck.
She said she had been mugged in front of her building 20 years ago. But the feisty woman said she wouldn’t let her latest run-in affect her lifestyle.
“He didn’t even knock off my glasses,” Chichester said. “I’m not an old lady. I love to do things and go out. And I’m not going to stop.”