Tweet
Saw this on the news last night....
Dr. Mordrid
Woman, 74, puts choke on intruder, sends him running
When a man barged into Thelma Carter's house on Sunday, she throttled him until he gave up and ran.
"All I did was choke him. But I sure choked him," said Carter.
At 74, the retired motel desk clerk works as a school crossing guard.
Carter said a black man, probably in his twenties, came to her house on Third Avenue Southwest and asked to use her phone shortly before noon.
He looked like a nice man, she said. She asked him to wait while she went in to get the phone.
When she came back, he was waiting on her porch and asked for a phone book.
"I went in there to get a phone book. He pushed his way in and shut the door. So I started hollering at him to get out of here. He said, 'Don't holler! Don't holler!' I grabbed him around the throat and I just strangled the living daylights out of him," she said.
"When he saw that he couldn't get my hands away from his neck, he just quit. He really acted like he was scared while he was in my house."
Carter also employed a little subterfuge: She began shouting for her grandson, Jamie, who wasn't in the house at the time.
The intruder turned and ran.
"Last I saw him, he was running down the street.
. . . I wished I had run after him and picked up something and knocked him in the head," Carter said.
"My neighbors were just laughing. I've always told people if somebody come in here on me, I'd fight 'em," she said.
Carter took a self-defense class a few years back, but she said Sunday was the first time she's been forced to get physical.
Though the man originally told her he was stranded in Decatur and needed to use the phone to call his mother, Carter now believes that was just a ploy to gain entry to her home.
She said she's asked around and stayed on the lookout in case the man is from her neighborhood.
"I sat out on the porch today and watched the road," she said. "But I don't think he'll ever come back this way again."
When a man barged into Thelma Carter's house on Sunday, she throttled him until he gave up and ran.
"All I did was choke him. But I sure choked him," said Carter.
At 74, the retired motel desk clerk works as a school crossing guard.
Carter said a black man, probably in his twenties, came to her house on Third Avenue Southwest and asked to use her phone shortly before noon.
He looked like a nice man, she said. She asked him to wait while she went in to get the phone.
When she came back, he was waiting on her porch and asked for a phone book.
"I went in there to get a phone book. He pushed his way in and shut the door. So I started hollering at him to get out of here. He said, 'Don't holler! Don't holler!' I grabbed him around the throat and I just strangled the living daylights out of him," she said.
"When he saw that he couldn't get my hands away from his neck, he just quit. He really acted like he was scared while he was in my house."
Carter also employed a little subterfuge: She began shouting for her grandson, Jamie, who wasn't in the house at the time.
The intruder turned and ran.
"Last I saw him, he was running down the street.
. . . I wished I had run after him and picked up something and knocked him in the head," Carter said.
"My neighbors were just laughing. I've always told people if somebody come in here on me, I'd fight 'em," she said.
Carter took a self-defense class a few years back, but she said Sunday was the first time she's been forced to get physical.
Though the man originally told her he was stranded in Decatur and needed to use the phone to call his mother, Carter now believes that was just a ploy to gain entry to her home.
She said she's asked around and stayed on the lookout in case the man is from her neighborhood.
"I sat out on the porch today and watched the road," she said. "But I don't think he'll ever come back this way again."
Dr. Mordrid
Comment