One of the most cowardly things about thieves, robbers and other petty criminals is that they often tend to go after “easy prey”.
This means that defenseless elderly men and women are often targets for crime, because their perpetrators assume that they won’t be able to defend themselves in such an incident.
But when one man attacked 67-year-old Lorenza Marrujo, assuming that she, too, wouldn’t be able to fight back, he was about to be given a taste of his own medicine…
Lorenza lives in a home for seniors in Fontana, California. On a day that started like any other, she was soon disrupted by an intruder, who broke into her apartment.
Being barely 5 foot tall, Lorenza certainly suits the image of a helpless old lady. The intruder most likely assumed that he’d come across no-one less threatening at his break-in location of choice.
What the intruder didn’t know was that he had chosen the wrong elderly lady to mess with – as Lorenza had 26 years of martial arts training behind her.
Speaking about the incident to Los Angeles CBS Local, Lorenza recalled:
“As he was coming towards me, I said, ‘Back off’ right away.”
Miraculously, the man listened to Lorenza – perhaps there was something in her stance that suggested she was up for a fight. But it didn’t stop him from breaking into Lorenza’s neighbors’ apartments.
One neighbor who was disturbed by the intruder was 81-year-old Elizabeth McCray, a friend of Lorenza’s.
When the man grabbed Elizabeth and shook her, she fell to the floor and screamed, prompting Lorenza to sense trouble and rush to help.
It was at this moment that Lorenza proceeded to attack the intruder with the sass and the suppleness of a superhero. She explained:
“I squeezed myself between her and him. I put mama on the side, and I jumped on him and I was punching him and everything, and I had the cane against his throat.”
Lorenza, who didn’t want to seriously hurt or kill the intruder, used her hands to pin him to the floor.
According to Lorenza’s recollection of the incident, the man tried to reach up and twist her hand, but she was too fast for him. She twisted his hand instead, until he told her she was hurting him.
Lorenza’s response? She said, “I don’t care. I don’t care what happens to you. You had no right to hurt an elderly person.” Good on her!
Elizabeth, Lorenza’s friend, said she never expected a little old lady to be so brave.
She had pleaded for Lorenza to be careful, worrying she’d end up getting the both of them killed. But Lorenza had replied, “Not today.”
The intruder was taken into police custody with no physical injuries. Elizabeth had a short stay in hospital for treatment. As for Lorenza, she came out of the incident entirely unharmed.
There’s no denying that Lorenza is a badass elderly lady if we’ve ever seen one.
But the police don’t recommend fighting intruders, Lorenza-style, as not all of us have more than two decades of martial arts training and muscle memory that handily kicks in right when we need it.
You can learn more about Lorenza’s brave actions of self-defense, and watch interviews with the leading lady herself, in the video below.
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