87-year-old woman fights off teenage home intruder - then gives him snacks
In Maine, an 87-year-old woman living alone was asleep when a teenager broke into her home in a horrifying scene straight out of a nightmare.
But with age comes wisdom - and this clever woman managed to fight off her attacker until he was tired and distracted him with snacks while she called the police.
Marjorie Perkins lives alone in a Beverly Drive home in the Bay Bridge Estates neighbourhood. Around 2 a.m. last Wednesday, she woke up to a teenager standing over her. It was a 17-year-old she knew from the neighbourhood. When he was a boy, he used to mow her lawn, she said.
A teenage burglar snuck into an old woman's house but she was too smart for him and distracted him with snacks while she called police (Getty Images/iStockphoto)“He said, ‘I’m going to cut you,'” said Perkins, who was alone in the home. “I thought to myself, ‘If he’s going to cut, I’m going to kick.’ So I jumped into my shoes.” She told the Press Herald that the teen started hitting her, so she reached for a chair to use as a shield. “That helped,” she said. “I was hollering for help out the window. … Thank God I had the chair between us. It would’ve been worse.”
Unfortunately, no one heard her in the secluded neighbourhood where most of the homes are largely well-built and soundproof. “He kept punching me and pushing me,” she told reporters. She continued to kick at him and use the chair to defend herself until he got tired. The teen did manage to land a few punches, leaving the woman bruised.
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When the young man got tired, he went into the kitchen. At that point, Perkins realized he wasn't wearing pants or shoes - he took them off to climb through a gap where the air conditioning unit used to be. “You need to get out,” Perkins – who had locked her front door – told the boy. “You need help.”
A teenager was arrested in Maine and booked into a youth detention center after burglarizing a home and assaulting the owner - an 87-year-old woman (Getty Images)Perkins told the Times Record that the teen replied that “he was awfully hungry and hadn’t had anything to eat for a while." That's when the older woman decided to placate the boy with a box of peanut butter and honey crackers. She also gave him two tangerines and a pair of Ensure protein shake containers.
The teen apparently didn't think twice and began eating the snacks, even pausing at the table to chow down. Perkins used that time to call the police. She dialled 9-1-1 on her rotary phone. When the teen was done eating, he apparently left before the cops could arrive. Luckily for law enforcement, he didn't go far.
Police managed to catch up with him a few blocks away. He was booked into a youth detention centre on counts of burglary, criminal threatening and assault.
Meanwhile, Perkins says that she was thankful she wasn't hurt and says that was because she stays active by teaching line dancing classes. She also said that a neighbour had gotten her a baseball bat to keep by her bed in case anything ever happened and that another community member came to secure her air conditioning unit.
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