A Staten Island woman who told authorities a "jilted panhandler" attacked her with acid, leaving her with terrible burns on her face, actually inflicted her own wounds, according to the New York Police Department. The shocking incident airwaves in New York on Monday, after the 52-year-old woman stumbled into a local convenience store with what appeared to be severe acid burns covering her face and neck. The woman told police that a man begging for change on the side of Woodrow Road had sprayed her with an "unknown liquid" after she refused to give him a cigarette.
"We thought it was a prank at first," a witness told local news. "She came in here, she was banging on the door, banging on the door. She was almost fainting and falling."
"When I tell you it was absolutely horrible — it looks like her face is melting off," he added. "She couldn't breathe, she was panting."
The store workers attempted to keep the woman calm until EMS arrived. She was eventually taken to Staten Island University Hospital for immediate treatment for her severe, second-degree acid burns.
But after a brief investigation, NYPD says the injuries were self-inflicted, and that the woman sprayed herself in the face with the corrosive acid and tried to blame a homeless man. Police say they became suspicious when they couldn't find anyone matching the woman's description in and around the area where she said the alleged attack took place.
"The alleged acid assault in the Woodrow Area yesterday has been found to have not occurred," the NYPD said on Twitter. "The injuries were self inflicted and there is no perpetrator. There is no threat to the public."
After initial reports of the attack, some New Yorkers took to social media to express their panic that acid attacks — typically the purview of radical Islamist terrorists in places like Marseilles, France — had come to America. This time, at least, however, the concern was unwarranted.
