November 22, 2019

“He was glad to get in ambulance”

Rochester, N.Y. – An 82-year-old woman found herself in danger after she says a man broke into her home – until she turned the tables on the intruder.


Willie Murphy says she was getting ready for bed Thursday night, just after 11 p.m., when a man began pounding on her door.


“He was outside and saying, ‘Please call an ambulance,’ saying, ‘I’m sick, I’m sick,’” she said.

She called the police, but wouldn’t let him inside. That, she says, is when he became angry.

“I hear a loud noise,” she said. “I’m thinking, what the heck was that? The young man is in my home. He broke the door.”

What the suspect likely didn’t realize is Murphy is an award-winning bodybuilder who works out at the Maplewood YMCA almost every day.

“He picked the wrong house to break into,” she said.

Murphy says it was dark, so she was able to hide as the suspect walked through her house. She acted quickly and grabbed the closest thing she could find.

“I picked up the table, and I went to work on him,” she said. ‘The table broke.”