Video: Robbers attack elderly couple while they sleep

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LYMAN, Wash. -- The Skagit County sheriff's office says three men broke into a home in the rural town of Lyman, tied up an elderly couple and robbed their safe.

Eighty-two-year-old William Wood has massive bruises covering his arms and face following the attack.

He was awakened around 3:45 a.m. by three men who had sliced through a screen door and broken the glass of another to enter the modest home he shares with his 81-year-old wife, Dorothy in the town east of Sedro Woolley.

"They were all dressed in black with masks on," said Dorothy.

The men kept William in one room and Dorothy in another. It was clear right away what they were after.

"All they could say is where's the safe? Where's your safe?" said William.

The men wrapped the Wood’s wrists in duct tape. The couple says two of them were holding handguns.

"The whole time, this one son-of-a-gun had a gun between my eyes. The only thing I could see was that hammer drawn," said William.

Eventually, one of the masked men put a pillow case around William’s head and started beating him.

"Hit me with a gun in his hand or his fist," said William.

While it seems the trio was most interested in the safe, which they eventually found and emptied, they did try to take something else as well.

"And he tried pulling my rings off. My fingers is black. I'm shaking. I can't help it," said Dorothy.

It's a crime that seems almost unimaginable in this tiny town with the beautiful Skagit River meandering just a few hundred feet outside the woods' front door.

Both are deeply grateful they survived.

"One good thing about the whole ordeal is we're both sitting here," said William.

But the safety and tranquility they used to feel here is now gone.

"Well, I thought he was dead," said Dorothy about William.

William says he has one message for other elderly people out there. He says make sure you have a home security system. He feels that could've prevented his home invasion.

Detectives don't have any description of the three men, other than at least one had blue eyes.