Elderly Women’s Tough Talk Deters Would-Be Robber

Two women in their 70s fended off an armed robber with their own weapons--attitude and advice.

Mary Connell, 79, and Mary Pottorff, 73, walked into their garage the afternoon of July 9 on their way to the doctor. There they met a slim youth of about 16, wearing a blue bandanna over the lower half of his face, police said.

Brandishing a handgun and a tire iron, he ordered the two to get on the floor. They refused.

“We’re too old to get on the floor,” Pottorff said.

“Get down on the floor or I’ll shoot,” the gunman said.

“Then you might as well shoot,” police said Pottorff told him. She turned around and went inside to call police.

That left the robber wannabe alone with Connell, a former schoolteacher.

“Young man, is this what you really want to do with your life?” Pottorff said her friend asked. “Because you know what they’re doing to kids in this state. You’ll probably go to prison.

“If I were you, I’d just turn around and leave.”

He did.