Man, 75, Raises Cane and Fights Off Thieves

Four months ago, 75-year-old Mariano Padilla was given a folding cane for protection by his wife after he was beaten and robbed of $6 and his gold watch while waiting for a bus at the corner of Echo Park Avenue and Sunset Boulevard.

Wednesday morning Padilla had occasion to use it.

Two young men approached Padilla about 4:45 a.m. on that same street corner, grabbed him by the neck and demanded his money. This time he fought the thieves off with the cane, saving his money and valuables.

The thieves, however, made off with the cane.

“I aimed for his head,” Padilla said, “but I hit him (the assailant) on the shoulder.” While swinging the cane, Padilla lost his grip and dropped it. One of the thieves grabbed it and both ran off.

Padilla said he doesn’t plan to replace the $25 cane. “I have three more canes in my closet, but they aren’t folding canes,” he said. “Folding canes are the ones that really bust heads.”

The feisty old man claims he wasn’t frightened. “I’m not afraid of those punks,” he said Thursday at the Los Angeles Athletic Club, where he works as a bell captain. “I won’t give them the satisfaction of depriving me of where I want to go.

“As old as I am, I can still give an account for myself.”

Police supported Padilla’s response to the attack. “It’s absolutely super when a young man attacks some elderly man and gets a surprise,” said Lt. Fred Nixon of the Los Angeles Police Department. “That sort of thing always sends up cheers from the police.”

During the first attack, on the morning of May 11, Padilla was knocked to the ground and kicked in the ribs several times. He suffered cracked ribs, a bruised jaw and a welt on his forehead.

Padilla said he tried to strike back, but couldn’t fend for himself because he was still recuperating from an operation on his back that he had undergone four days earlier. “I think I kicked one,” he said, “but I was weak and that’s why they got my money.”

The beating did not keep Padilla from showing up for work that day.

“I was bleeding from my jaw and had a bump on my head, but I came to work,” he said. “Where else was I gonna go that time of morning?”

The beating also hasn’t kept the 5-foot, 1-inch Padilla from making his daily six-block walk to the corner where he catches the bus to work. “I wasn’t afraid when my buddies in the war were being killed,” he said, “and I’m not afraid of these punks.

“I fought under (Gen. Douglas) MacArthur in World War II. I was the eyes and ears for MacArthur” for five years as a commando with the Army, he said.

But his commando training failed to provide comfort to his wife, Edith. “I wish (someone) would do something,” she said. “I won’t have a husband for long if this keeps up.”