"I'm from New York! I'm a tough girl! So I think I can handle it," Congresswoman Grace Meng said.
Grace Meng, the freshman member of Congress from Queens, had a nasty introduction to crime in Washington as she walked to her home, not far from the nation's capital.
"Basically got hit from behind, landed on my front," Meng said, "After I hit the ground there's a period of time where I don't really remember what happened."
It was busy on Pennsylvania Avenue, near the trendy Eastern Market on Capitol Hill, when someone walked up behind Meng and decked her so hard she has no memory of what happened next. She then apparently walked several blocks to find a police officer.
"And the next thing I knew I was talking to police officers in an ambulance on the way to the hospital," Meng said.
The 38-year-old Democrat recently won election to Congress representing Flushing, Forest Hills, and Kew Gardens.
Tuesday night, her assailant made off with her Gucci handbag and she's nursing an ugly bruise on her chin from where she hit the ground.
But now she is back to work and feeling very lucky.
"The first thing I always worry about, you can always deal with bruises and soreness, but I was so glad that nothing else happened for the sake of my kids and my family," Meng said.
