Woman bound, gagged during 90-minute robbery

Smith, 77, was robbed and assaulted in a crime that Montgomery County Police have been reporting mostly in the Bethesda, Chevy Chase and Potomac communities: Home invasions by strangers.

Smith recounted the robbery during an interview at her house last week.

The Gazette is not using her real name because she is the victim of a crime. She lives in Chevy Chase Village, a small municipality bordering Washington from the north.

‘‘My blood pressure was through the roof,” she said. ‘‘Of course, it probably still is.”

Smith’s knee was injured and she has a bruised arm from the ordeal. But she’s not scared. She’s furious at the man who did it.

Smith was switching off her television set and heading to bed around 11:30 p.m. Nov. 26, when her lights suddenly went out.

She walked down to the basement to check the fuse box.

There she confronted a young man who hit her, knocking her to the ground. He wasn’t carrying a gun or knife, as far as Smith could see, but he was holding a flashlight, she said. He moved the flashlight as though he was trying to hide his face, Smith said — but she caught a glimpse of him, wearing a gauzy bandana around his head. She said he spoke with an accent.

‘‘How did you get down here,” Smith said to the man, in the tone a mother uses with a disobedient child.

He had forced his way through a basement window.

The man demanded to know where Smith’s money was. She told him to check her purse upstairs.

The man tied her hands and legs. He took off his bandana and stuffed it in her mouth.

For the next 90 minutes, Smith listened from the basement as a stranger went through her house. He stole $60 from her purse, jewelry and expensive personal property, and items that held sentimental value to Smith.

He emptied drawers, dumped out her purse and broke her cell phone into two pieces.

In the basement, Smith untied her hands. Then she wove the rope loosely around her wrists.

‘‘Don’t let him know you’re untied. Don’t do anything more to antagonize him,” she thought to herself. ‘‘Just wait this out, and play it cool.”

As the minutes passed, Smith got angry. She didn’t feel panicked or scared, just raging mad.

The man left around 1 a.m., crawling through the same window he entered. Smith waited about 15 minutes to make sure he was truly gone. Then she went to a neighbor’s house to call the police.

Police said the case is still under investigation.

Police described the man as 18 to 23 years old, 5 feet 7 inches to 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing 130 to 150 pounds and wearing a puffy black jacket with white vertical stripes, black pants and a black baseball cap.

Home invasions like the one Smith endured are done by ‘‘just a totally different type of individual,” according to Chevy Chase Village Police Chief Roy A. Gordon. ‘‘They know they’re going to confront somebody.”

Gordon said Smith’s home invasion is the first of its kind in the village in more than 10 years.

‘‘I think it’s something that you’re seeing more of across the country,” Gordon said.

Two home invasions by strangers hit Bethesda and Potomac in September. The robbers restrained the residents and left with property in both crimes.

Montgomery County logged more than 3,800 burglaries last year, according to the FBI. The county had the third highest number of burglaries in the state last year, behind Prince George’s County and Baltimore County.

Most burglaries in the United States last year were residential and during the daytime hours. Burglaries cost victims an estimated $4 billion last year, according to the FBI.

Police said residents should call the county or municipal police department immediately if they suspect a break-in.

Police ask that anyone with information about home invasions call the Robbery Division at 240-773-5100. Calls can be made anonymously.