87-year-old woman fights off home invader, then feeds him: 'He said he was awfully hungry'

Waking up to an intruder might be some people’s worst nightmare, but for 87-year-old Marjorie Perkins, it was a real-life ordeal. This, however, wasn’t your typical home invasion.

“I woke up to see a male standing over me by my bed, telling me he was going to cut me,” Perkins told local NBC-affiliate, News Center Maine.

Perkins discovered the 17-year-old suspect when she woke up around 2 a.m. last Wednesday. Perkins, who lives alone in Brunswick, jumped out of bed and acted quickly.

“I thought to myself, ‘If he’s going to cut, I’m going to kick.’ So I jumped into my shoes,” she told the Times Record, an independent paper covering the mid-coast region of Maine.

According to the local reports, the teenager became physical, pushing Perkins against the wall and then hitting her. Perkins fought back. “He kept punching me and pushing me,” Perkins told the newspaper, saying she suffered a bruise to her forehead from the hits.

Fortunately, she was able to grab a nearby chair to shield herself and struck him with it repeatedly as she screamed for help.

“That helped,” she said. “I was hollering for help out the window. ... Thank God I had the chair between us. It would’ve been worse.”

Perkins said the teenager eventually got tired and headed for the kitchen. He had on no pants or shoes, which were in a pile next to an air-conditioning unit, police said, and had a knife.

“I kept saying, ‘You need to get out. You need help,’” she said. “He said he was awfully hungry and hadn’t had anything to eat for quite a while. And I said, ‘Well, here’s a box of peanut butter and honey crackers. You can have that whole box.’ I gave him two containers of Ensure and I gave him two tangerines.”

She dialed 911 on her rotary phone while he was eating.

“I dialed as fast as I could,” she said.

Perkins said the teen broke in by moving the air conditioner’s side panel on a window and fitting through the gap. She said she locked her front door before going to bed.

The teenager left before police could arrive, but a police dog tracked him down a few blocks away where he was arrested. His charges include burglary, criminal threatening and assault.

The incident underscores some of the vulnerabilities elderly people face regarding crime. A 2014 report from the Justice Department said that between 2003 and 2013, about 93% of all crime experienced by the elderly (65 and older) was property crimes, including burglary and theft. And 59% of elderly victims included in the study reported being a victim near or at their home.

Perkins said that 10 years ago, the same boy mowed her lawn to make extra money. “I hope he gets help,” the former elementary school teacher said.