Athens hotel guest assaulted and robbed

By Joe Johnson

A woman was assaulted and robbed as she was fishing through her purse for the key for her room at the Howard Johnson hotel on West Broad Street.

The 49-year-old victim said she was pushed from behind and hit her head against the door by the robber, who then dumped the contents of her purse that included $340 cash, which was the only thing stolen.

The hallway was darkened at the time due to a power outage, according to police, who said they were unable to review surveillance footage because of the outage,