Female thugs knock down 78-year-old woman battling cancer — then pepper-spray and punch her before stealing her car

Angelina Bellissima — a 78-year-old who's battling cancer — had just parked her car on South Smedley Street in Philadelphia last week so she and her daughter could unload groceries, WPVI-TV reported.

But instead, Bellissima would endure a terrifying ordeal.

What happened?

Three women — who investigators say were "stalking" Bellissima — knocked her down, pepper-sprayed her in the face, punched her, grabbed her car keys, and took off in her vehicle, police said, adding that security cameras captured the attack as well as the suspects' getaway.

"I just felt like I was going to die," Bellissima told WPVI Wednesday, just hours after police released videos of the attack.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

"I hear a scream, 'Help me, help me!" her daughter Angela Palumbo recalled to the station in an earlier story from the station about the attack, which noted that Bellissima said the suspects asked her for a ride and then came at her when she said no.

"I just feel them come back, like hit me from the back, and I feel this pepper spray in my face," she added to the station. "They threw me to the ground, punched me in the face. They grabbed the keys out of my hand, and I heard them saying, 'Open the doors, open the doors.'"

Palumbo added to WPVI: "When I saw my mom in a ball crying with her face full of pepper spray, I just lost it. For somebody to come along and just hurt her like that, there's no pain, there's no pain like that."

Here's video police released of the attack:

Robbery 27XX S Smedley St DC 21 01 001541youtu.be

It gets worse

Bellissima also suffered a stress heart attack and just regained sight in her left eye, the station said.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

"I'm scared to death to go out because they're not caught yet, I really am," she added to WPVI. "Usually I'm pretty strong. Let me tell you, I'm fighting cancer, but this time I'm scared because I know they're still out there."

Carjackings have been skyrocketing in the Philadelphia area, and the perpetrators are getting more brazen, the station said.

"They need to pay for what they did to her because she doesn't deserve this," Palumbo told WPVI. "She just got done cancer radiation, five surgeries — and now this."

Elderly woman recounts brazen carjacking: 'I just felt like I was going to die'youtu.be