CARLSBAD -- An elderly hotel desk clerk was robbed, punched in the face and had her car stolen from an upscale Carlsbad resort Sunday, a Carlsbad police lieutenant said.

The woman was in the back office of the Tamarack Beach Resort at 3200 Carlsbad Blvd. at about 4:10 a.m. when she heard the robber come into the room, Lt. Jay Eppel said.

When the victim, in her 60s, turned in the direction of the noise, the robber punched her in the face and forced her to the floor, Eppel said.

The lieutenant said the robber, described as a 5-foot-8 white man in his early 20s and wearing a dark tee shirt and shorts, demanded to know where to find the money and the keys to her car.

The man took an unknown amount of cash and fled in the victim's maroon 1998 Saturn SLR2 with a California license plate of 4BPV789.