An 87-year outdated sufferer of a house invasion fought off her would-be attacker. Then she gave him snacks.

• An 87-year-old girl in Maine awoke to discover a half-naked man standing on the foot of her mattress.
• The person threatened her with a knife and he or she fought him off by kicking and hitting him with a chair.
• Earlier than he fled, the lady acknowledged him as a teen who used to mow her garden and provided him snacks.

Confronted with a house intruder threatening to chop her with a knife, Marjorie Perkins acted on pure intuition: She placed on her sneakers, fought off her would-be assailant, after which made certain he’d had sufficient to eat.

“I woke as much as see a male standing over me by my mattress telling me he was going to chop me,” Perkins, a resident of Brunswick, Maine, advised Information Heart Maine in an interview concerning the July 26 incident.

The intruder had entered the 87-year-old’s residence simply after 2 a.m. by sliding over the conditioning panel on her window and squeezing by means of the hole. He had with him a water bottle stuffed with alcohol, based on Perkins, and native police advised Insider he had a knife, which he had left within the different room earlier than waking the lady.

“I jumped away from bed, obtained my sneakers on — actual quick as a result of they do not have ties — and I used to be able to kick,” Perkins advised Information Heart Maine.

The 87-year-old struggled together with her attacker as he pushed her up towards the wall, so Perkins stated she grabbed the very first thing she may attain, a chair close by her mattress, and started swinging it at him till he grew drained and stopped his assault.

He began to go away however first stopped within the kitchen.

“I saved saying, ‘It’s good to get out. You need assistance,'” Perkins advised The Instances Document. “He stated he was awfully hungry and hadn’t had something to eat for fairly some time. And I stated, ‘Effectively, here is a field of peanut butter and honey crackers. You may have that complete field.’ I gave him two containers of Guarantee and I gave him two tangerines.” 

As he ate, the lady used her rotary telephone to dial the police. Whereas she did, he escaped on foot, forsaking a pair of sneakers. 

Responding officers used a K9 named Jack to trace the suspect, based on a press release to Insider from the Brunswick Police Division. The intruder, a minor, is in custody at Lengthy Creek Youth Improvement Heart, going through expenses of housebreaking, felony threatening, assault, and underage liquor consumption.

The Brunswick Police Division didn’t affirm the suspect’s id, however Perkins advised The Instances Document he was a neighborhood teenager who used to mow her garden when he was youthful, saying: “He did a darn good job. I hope he will get assist.”

The previous elementary faculty instructor stated she’s glad she wasn’t damage extra critically than being shoved round however has taken the alarming incident in stride, warning others to verify their air con models are correctly secured — and to be ready for something within the face of an emergency.

“Do not sit and cry about it,” Perkins advised Information Heart Maine, laughing concerning the expertise. “Be able to kick and choose up a chair and hit someone with it.”