By Tim Binnall
An 87-year-old woman in Maine managed to thwart an intruder who burst into her home when she fed him some snacks after he complained of being hungry. According to a local media report, the weird incident occurred at around 2 AM last Wednesday morning in the town of Brunswick when Marjorie Perkins was roused from her sleep by a teenager in her bedroom. "He said, 'I'm going to cut you,'" she later recalled, explaining that she then "thought to myself, 'If he's going to cut, I'm going to kick.' So I jumped into my shoes." What followed next was something of a scuffle as the young man threw punches at Perkins while she cried out for help and attempted to shield herself with a chair that was between them.
Alas, there was no one else in the home to provide rescue and her shouts out the window went unheard at that early morning hour, so Perkins was left to fend for herself. Although the troublesome teen managed to land a few blows during the fight, it would seem that the sprightly senior's resolve was ultimately no match for the miscreant as he eventually grew tired and wandered off into the kitchen. It was then that Perkins told him to get out of her house and "he said he was awfully hungry and hadn't had anything to eat for quite a while." No doubt hoping to placate the pugnacious pest, Perkins proceeded to give him a box of peanut butter and honey crackers, two tangerines, and a couple of bottles of Ensure to wash it all down.
As the young man scarfed on the snacks, Perkins deftly called 911 to report the unsettling incident. Remarkably, she made the call using a rotary phone, so even if the teenager had seen her dial for help, he likely would have had no idea what she was doing with the 'strange device.' Be that as it may, the young man ultimately left the residence after his hunger has been satiated, but before cops arrived on the scene. Fortunately, they quickly located him near the home as the misguided 17-year-old was easy to identify since he had left his pants and shoes behind when he wiggled through gap in the window which held Perkins' air conditioner.
In a further indication that the pantless youngster is not exactly a master criminal, Perkins indicated that she actually knew the teen as he had mowed her lawn years ago when he was just a boy and had done "a darn good job" at it. With that in mind, she expressed hope that he can get help for whatever drove him to break into her home. In the meantime, the teen is facing charges of criminal threatening, burglary, assault, and, in what may explain how the entire misadventure came about, consuming liquor as a minor. After a neighbor heard about what had happened, he gave Perkins a bat to defend herself should something similar happen in the future, though one images any would-be burglars will probably steer clear of the senior's home considering how the last troublemaker fared.