Sometimes you read a news story, and it’s so good that once is simply not enough.
That’s exactly how I felt this morning when I stumbled upon this news article that was shared by CNN while sipping my coffee. Yesterday, CNN published a story from their news affiliate WHAM that highlighted an 82-year-old powerlifting grandma who beat down a home intruder and sent him on his way in an ambulance.
The scene was Thursday evening in Rochester, New York. Willie Murphy was getting ready for bed when there was a loud banging on her front door.
Murphy told WHAM that the man was urging her to call an ambulance, and when she called the police instead, he got angry and began breaking down her door to get into the house. She explained to WHAM,
“It’s kind of semi-dark and I’m alone, and I’m old. But guess what, I’m tough. He picked the wrong house to break into.”
Little did the intruder know that the house he was breaking into belonged to an award winning powerlifter who spends her days working out at her local YMCA. In her age bracket, Murphy has won all of the eleven powerlifting meets she’s competed in — her best total is 345 pounds.
When the intruder finally got into Murphy’s home, WHAM notes that she began beating him with household items, beginning with a nearby table.
The table eventually broke, and that’s when she began using the metal legs as clubs to beat the intruder down.
“I took that table and I went to working on him. And guess what? The table broke.”
After the beatdown from the table, Murphy ran into the kitchen to grab baby shampoo to squirt into the intruder’s eyes, and to finish him off, she hit him with a close by broom and jumped up and down on him.
Ms. Murphy standing shoulder to shoulder with Genesee Section Officers after an intruder attempted to break into her home. Ms. Murphy is tough as nails & fended off the intruder. Ms. Murphy standing with some of the officers that responded to her home. pic.twitter.com/1gr8KfWZ4d
— Rochester NY Police (@RochesterNYPD) November 25, 2019
At this point, the cops had arrived from Murphy’s initial phone call and the intruder was put into an ambulance and sent along his way. Following the break in, Murphy was given a hero’s welcome at her local YMCA Friday when she went to grab her workout.
I don’t know about you, but this was one of the most epic stories I’ve read recently, and it’s only another reason why strength training at any age can go a long way.
Feature image from CNN.com.
