Hugh Mathis, a 92-year-old WWII veteran, and his wife, Ruby, 89, opened the door when a young man they knew from their neighborhood knocked. The young man had previously done odd jobs for the couple, including mowing their lawn and shoveling snow. He asked to use the Mathis’ telephone. Once inside, the man pulled a knife on Mr. Mathis and demanded money. Mrs. Mathis quickly went to the bedroom where they kept a firearm. When she returned, the would-be robber fled through the front door. He was later arrested and held on three counts of aggravated robbery. (WLWT News 5, Springfield Township, Ohio, 4/10/14)
On June 24, at about 11 a.m., there was an attempted robbery at the Jim Anderson Jewelers in Flagstaff, Ariz. A man entered the store and told the owner that he wanted to look at a tray of engagement rings and asked her if she was alone. She lied and said she wasn’t. Soon the suspect pulled out a gun and tried to get the owner to go to the back of the store to open the safe, but the owner wouldn’t do it. The gunman ordered her to the ground. A customer walked in and the owner shouted for the customer to leave. The gunman left and another suspect came into the store. But while she was alone in the store, the owner armed herself with a gun. When the suspects returned the owner fired a shot. The suspect who had grabbed jewelry threw all of it into the air and jumped through a glass window to escape. The other suspects fled. The owner of the store was slightly injured but was treated and released and has since returned to work. Detectives are reportedly working with investigators from other agencies to solve this and other robberies in the area. Flagstaff Police Chief Kevin Treadway declined to give any information, but he did say that the case was quickly coming to a conclusion and further news in the case would be forthcoming. (Arizona Daily Sun, Flagstaff, Ariz., 8/29/14)
From The Armed Citizen® Archives
June 1971: Mrs. Keith Boyce and her nine-month-old baby were alone in their secluded home near Tulsa, Okla., one night when a stranger pulled his car into the back yard. Twice burglarized in the preceding 12 months, Mrs. Boyce didn’t open the door at his knock. Instead, she waited quietly inside, holding her baby with one hand and a .22 pistol with the other. When the man kicked in another door and entered the home, the young mother fired several times, wounding the intruder fatally. (The Tulsa Daily World, Tulsa, Okla.)
