By Theodore Parisienne and Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo Staff
HOLLIS — A Queens mom leaped from the second-story window of her home Monday in an attempt to escape a home invasion robbery, surprising and scaring off a pair of masked bandits who were holding her teenage children at gunpoint, police and witnesses said.
The frightening incident unfolded shortly before 1 p.m., when the woman's two children arrived at the home on 202nd Street, near 93rd Avenue, after running errands for their mom to find the armed, ski-mask-wearing men inside.
"When my sister opened up the front door, they like pushed her up against the wall," said her son, Yoldalyn Canela, 16, describing the harrowing the scene they encountered at the house, which is shared by all three and another sister. "My sister was like, 'Whoa what's happening?' and they pointed a gun at us.
"We're not going to hurt you. Just don't do anything," one of the men told them, Canela added.
When the intruders led him and his sister, Marilyn Vargas, 18, upstairs to tie them up, their mom, Amalia Vargas, 37, bolted from her room in an attempt to escape out the back door, the teens said.
One of the bandits chased after the mom and brought her back upstairs, where they struggled, Canela said.
That's when Amalia Vargas jumped out the second-story window, thinking one of the men was going for a gun, and falling to the driveway below, police and her son said.
"He was going to grab a gun," Canela said of the robbers, "probably to shoot her."
Canela noted that his mother broke both heels as well as a bone in her back in the fall and now requires surgery.
But the woman's daring move was enough to scare off the men, one of whom shouted, "Yo, let’s go!" after the bold plunge, her son said.
"I thought I was going to get shot," Canela said.
The intruders fled the scene before cops could make any arrests, police said.
Canela added that the bandits stole his mom's iPhone and some jewelry.
