CENTRALIA, Wash. -- A 72-year-old woman was attacked when a man posed as a police officer invader her Centralia home.

Alice Newberry cracked her front door last Wednesday when a man knocked claiming to be a Centralia police officer. Once she opened the door, her attacker burst in.

Newberry said she crashed to the floor after the man hit her and she hit a wall. She said her attacker then threw a coat on top of her head and tied her up with a dog leash.

She said she was petrified, "You're kind of in shock, how can this be happening. I'm sitting there under that, ‘Oh my God he's going to kill me.”

The man demanded to know where the safe was and he stole a shotgun from a closet, took items from a jewelry box and prescription pills.

"It was terrible. It was just really terrible," Newberry said.

The robber did stop to get Newberry, who suffers from emphysema, an oxygen tank so she could breathe. Also, when she complained her mouth was dry he brought her cup of coffee.

Then he hid every phone in her house and locked her in the bathroom using a dog leash to tie the door shut before leaving.

"I reached through and started clipping the dog leash," Newberry said. She used toenail clippers and scissors from a medicine cabinet to free herself.

Until her attacker is captured, she said every knock on the door is terrifying.

"It just scared me so bad. I was afraid he was coming back," she said.

Her attacker also stole her car, but police found it abandoned near Bellevue.

Police said they believe the attacker was likely someone who had been inside the home before.

Anyone with information about the cast should call the Centralia Police Department.