By Mike Morris
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
6:59 a.m. Tuesday, August 3, 2010

A southeast Atlanta woman tied to her bed during a harrowing overnight home invasion was freed by police after she used her toes to type a computer message to her boyfriend.

The armed robbery happened around midnight in the 700 block of Glenwood Avenue, according to Atlanta police dispatchers.

Just before 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, the victim’s boyfriend called 911 to report that 39-year-old Amy Windom had just contacted him and had been tied to her bed since midnight.

Atlanta police Capt. Van Hobbs told the AJC that when officers arrived, they found the victim tied to her bed.

The victim told police that the intruder, who was wearing a ski mask, “took her around the house and went through her belongings, then bound her to the bed,” Hobbs said. “Her laptop was on her bed with her and she was able to use her toes to type a message to her boyfriend and let him know what had happened.”

Hobbs said the intruder stole the victim’s white 2009 Acura.

Susan Walens, who lives around the corner, told the AJC that the neighborhood has been plagued by more than a half-dozen break-ins in recent months.

“Twenty-six years I’ve lived here, in the same house, same corner, and never, never have I seen it like this,” Walens said. “And I moved in in ’84, when it was a ghetto.”

“It’s getting worse, with the economy the way it is,” Walens said. “After I got broken into, and every time I see something, I just want to sit in a rocking chair on my front porch with a shotgun. Once they hear that click, they’ll turn around.”

Staff photographer John Spink contributed to this article.

photo: John Spink, jspink@ajc.com While walking her dog, Susan Walens stops to talk with an Atlanta police officer about a home-invasion robbery in the Grant Park area overnight.
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