Boiling mad husband pushes man down stairs
'I couldn't find the rolling pin,' wife says
The moral for a man who broke into a Newmarket home just after midnight yesterday: Don't underestimate an older couple with an attitude and a few good kitchen implements on hand.
A good thing for the intruder that Gladys, 59, didn't find her rolling pin. If she had, he might have had a few more bruises to add to those he got being shoved down the stairs and pummelled by Gladys' husband Clifford, 66, and then struck repeatedly in the back by Gladys wielding her metal tea kettle.
"I couldn't find the rolling pin so I picked up the first thing I saw," Gladys said yesterday as she sat beside her husband in their modest home. "I wish I had found something heavier. If I had thought faster I would have got my rolling pin from the kitchen drawer."
A 5-foot-8, 130-pound man was arrested about 50 metres from the home after someone broke in by squeezing through a tiny 20-by-60-centimetre rear window.
The couple, who didn't want their surnames and address published, said the terrifying incident began about 12:30 a.m., when Clifford, who stands 5-foot-5, was awakened by a noise in the kitchen. When he went to check, he came face to face with a man rifling through his wallet.
"He tried to run out the door, but I shoved him down the basement stairs," said the homeowner, who suffered cuts on his face and was bitten on his right forearm. "I didn't think he would fall, but he did pretty good."
Gladys woke to her husband's scream and he told her to call 911.
"I grabbed the telephone and phoned 911 while I heard my husband struggling in the basement," the 5-foot-tall woman said. As she dialled, Clifford smacked the intruder with every ounce of energy he could muster in their dark basement.
"He fell down all 10 stairs and I ran down behind him," Clifford said. "I grabbed him around the neck and kept punching him and punching him and he rolled over on his back.
"He kept yelling at me to stop hitting him because he was on drugs. But I told him I wasn't finished with him yet."
Clifford said the culprit tried to kick him but he managed to get away, then grabbed the culprit's feet as he ran upstairs.
Once upstairs, Clifford took the phone, and that's when Gladys went into action.
"I turned around and saw this tall man trying to get out of the back door, and I thought to myself, you son-of-a-gun," Gladys said. "I picked up the kettle and started driving it into the back of him and he kept trying to get out the back door.
"Douglas Halversen, 28, of Newmarket, was charged with break and enter, possession of stolen property under $5,000, assault causing bodily harm, theft under $5,000 and possession of break and enter tools.
Full Story from the Toronto Star
'I couldn't find the rolling pin,' wife says
The moral for a man who broke into a Newmarket home just after midnight yesterday: Don't underestimate an older couple with an attitude and a few good kitchen implements on hand.
A good thing for the intruder that Gladys, 59, didn't find her rolling pin. If she had, he might have had a few more bruises to add to those he got being shoved down the stairs and pummelled by Gladys' husband Clifford, 66, and then struck repeatedly in the back by Gladys wielding her metal tea kettle.
"I couldn't find the rolling pin so I picked up the first thing I saw," Gladys said yesterday as she sat beside her husband in their modest home. "I wish I had found something heavier. If I had thought faster I would have got my rolling pin from the kitchen drawer."
A 5-foot-8, 130-pound man was arrested about 50 metres from the home after someone broke in by squeezing through a tiny 20-by-60-centimetre rear window.
The couple, who didn't want their surnames and address published, said the terrifying incident began about 12:30 a.m., when Clifford, who stands 5-foot-5, was awakened by a noise in the kitchen. When he went to check, he came face to face with a man rifling through his wallet.
"He tried to run out the door, but I shoved him down the basement stairs," said the homeowner, who suffered cuts on his face and was bitten on his right forearm. "I didn't think he would fall, but he did pretty good."
Gladys woke to her husband's scream and he told her to call 911.
"I grabbed the telephone and phoned 911 while I heard my husband struggling in the basement," the 5-foot-tall woman said. As she dialled, Clifford smacked the intruder with every ounce of energy he could muster in their dark basement.
"He fell down all 10 stairs and I ran down behind him," Clifford said. "I grabbed him around the neck and kept punching him and punching him and he rolled over on his back.
"He kept yelling at me to stop hitting him because he was on drugs. But I told him I wasn't finished with him yet."
Clifford said the culprit tried to kick him but he managed to get away, then grabbed the culprit's feet as he ran upstairs.
Once upstairs, Clifford took the phone, and that's when Gladys went into action.
"I turned around and saw this tall man trying to get out of the back door, and I thought to myself, you son-of-a-gun," Gladys said. "I picked up the kettle and started driving it into the back of him and he kept trying to get out the back door.
"Douglas Halversen, 28, of Newmarket, was charged with break and enter, possession of stolen property under $5,000, assault causing bodily harm, theft under $5,000 and possession of break and enter tools.
Full Story from the Toronto Star
