SCOTTDALE, Pa. -- Police in Westmoreland County are investigating a violent mugging where the weapon used was a hypodermic needle.

According to police reports, a woman told police she was approached by a woman with blond hair in front of a Rite Aid in Scottdale.

The victim said her attacker demanded money. When the victim said she didn't have any, the woman stabbed the victim several times with a hypodermic needle, police said.

"She started stabbing me. When I looked, and she had a like a hypodermic needle. She just kept stabbing and stabbing. They just laughed. And I heard somebody laughing from inside the van because they had the door open," said the victim, who did not want to be identified.

The victim, who is in her 60s, was on her way to the bank at 8:30 a.m. Monday, when she said the women in that van drove up behind her and encouraged her to pull over.

"I thought then I have a flat tire, there's something the matter with the back of my car. So I went around and pulled into Rite Aid," the victim told Channel 4 Action News.

That's when she said a 6 foot 5 inch, 250-pound woman got out of that van and started walking toward her.

"The only words I every heard her say to me was, 'Ah, where's your money?' I thought she was kidding and I said, 'I don't have any,'" the victim said.

That's when the attack began. The victim's head was slammed into the car, her nose was nearly broken and she was stabbed repeatedly in the upper left arm, she said. Afterward, she drove to a nearby funeral home for help and was rushed to the hospital.

"They tested me for HIV and hepatitis. They don't think there was any drugs in the needle, but they do think that maybe it was a used needle. And I thought that she only hit me like three times, but they counted that there was like seven puncture wounds. And, it's just the waiting," the victim said.

Police said the attacker then took off in a rust-colored van, with another woman in the passenger seat.

Doctors are hoping for the best when the woman's bloodwork comes back in two days. They said because the needle passed through her jacket and shirt before it hit her skin, it may have wiped it clean.

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