You Get My Point...?

Sooner or later, some of these bad guys are going to catch on to the fact that not all older folks are push-overs!

The scum that make up the majority of the criminals have, for years, preyed on the helpless and defenseless ! Well, news stories like this one show that many of the once "helpless" folks are no longer easy targets! Maybe we should issue all of the elderly a brand new shotgun and a box of shells!

I have to admit, though, that they seem to be doing just fine with the weapons at hand! I believe the older folks call this "making do"!

Jacksonville burglar gets hit 'upside the head’ by 81-year-old victim’s frying pan

By Dan Scanlan

Things just didn't pan out for whoever invaded 81-year-old Bobby Smith's Jacksonville home Saturday afternoon.

In fact, you might say the robber got the point - literally - after the Korean War Navy veteran was through with him.

Smith and his caregiver used a pan full of fried potatoes and a pitchfork to drive the attacker away. A compact man with a close-trimmed gray haircut, Smith said he wasn't scared.

"I was angry; I was upset; and I was as mad as all outdoors," Smith said Wednesday. "If I'd had my gun, like I normally would have, I would have shot him because he was in my home. I don't like people hurting my family or my home."

Smith was working in the garden of his longtime home on Phoenix Avenue about 11 a.m. when his 65-year-old caretaker, Luvina Sones, ran out and said someone was in the house. Smith walked into the kitchen and found a man next to the stove with a plastic bag with Smith's "JEA money" and the couple's ID cards in one hand, a gun in the other.

The man told Smith to "gimme what you got" before shoving him to the ground and taking his wallet, according to the police report. That didn't stop Smith, who said he "went back after him." He grabbed the nearest weapon, while Sones grabbed for something else to give him.

"I grabbed the frying pan and hit him upside the head. I knocked his teeth out ... and he went to the floor," Smith said. "There was a pitchfork about six feet away. ... I stuck him."

Hit in the head and stuck in the side, the intruder ran, "bleeding on the way out." He left his white baseball cap behind.

Police searched the area, and the K-9 dog ultimately returned with a gift.

"The cop brought the K-9 back to the porch, and the dog had the wallet in his mouth," Smith said. "He bowed. The dog bowed."

One neighbor told officers he saw the man earlier walking shirtless through another backyard, grabbing a brown shirt off a clothesline and putting it on as he headed toward Smith's home.

Smith said an officer told him he'd never seen anyone fight someone with "a pitchfork and a pan of potatoes."

dan.scanlan@jacksonville.com

If this trend continues, some of these bad guys may have to get a real job! Looks like they aren't doing all that well in their chosen profession!

Let's get some fresh coffee and sit on the patio for a bit! Just put your pitch forks in the corner there!