Seventyish Sisters Go Like 60 After Burglar in Home

A man who broke into a house in Deland got nothing for his trouble except punches from an angry 73-year-old woman and smacks with a metal dishpan from her 71-year-old sister.

“I wasn’t afraid of him. He didn’t want to hurt us, he just wanted money, nothing else,” Clara Prince, 73, said Thursday.

DeLand police said that they believe a man came through the bathroom window while the sisters were in a room on the other side of the one-story house.

Prince said she was watching television in the living room when she heard a noise in the kitchen. She called to her sister and rushed to the room, where she surprised the burglar as he was rummaging through a dresser.

She started swinging, she said, and the man scrambled for the nearest exit.

At the front door, her sister, Almeta, was waiting with the dishpan, which she used liberally, Clara Prince said of the Wednesday night incident.

The older sister said that a small amount of cash was taken in a burglary last week, so both women had been on the alert for intruders.

No arrest was made, and police said they have no clues because the women were so excited they were unable to give a good description of the burglar.