Not a burglary, but a few years ago, a friend of mine told me was walking down the street near a low-income retirement home not far from where I live. He observed the following:—

An elderly woman was walking from a nearby bank toward the retirement home. It was the third of the month, and she had been to the bank to cash her Social Security check. My friend saw a rather punkish looking teen-ager walking rapidly toward the woman and immediately grasped what was about to happen. He broke into a run, to attempt to forestall the coming mugging/purse-snatching. He was closing fast, but the punk reached the woman and was about to make a grab for her purse. Suddenly, the woman turned, and swinging her purse by the strap, she caught the punk upside the head. He did a cartwheel and three somersaults and wound up laying inert on the sidewalk with his face in the gutter and his butt in the air.

My friend congratulated the woman on her effective response to the purse-snatching attempt. She told him that she'd had her purse snatched twice and wasn't about to let it happen again, so she took steps. "This is the second one I've nailed this year," she said with a measure of pride. "I keep my money in my coat pocket," she said. "And I carry a brick in my purse."

They left the trash laying there on the sidewalk and although it was obvious that she could pretty well take care of herself, my friend saw her safely back to her apartment building.

He went back to the scene of the attempted purse-snatching about ten minutes later and the punk was gone. If he'd been dead or seriously injured, there would have been cops all over the place. It was at about 17th and Madison in Seattle, and although it's not like downtown, it's a fairly well-traveled area. In ten minutes' time, someone would have found him and called for help. Chances are he wandered off with a helluva headache, a vivid bruise, and a whole new attitude about little old ladies being easy marks.

Don Firth