‘I’m alone, I’m old, but guess what I’m tough’: 82-year-old female bodybuilder beats up man who broke into her home

‘He picked the wrong house to break into,’ says Willie Murphy

An 82-year-old bodybuilder said an intruder “picked the wrong house to break into” after she beat him up using a table, broom and bottle of baby shampoo.

Willie Murphy was home alone getting ready for bed on Thursday night when a man began banging on her door asking for someone to call an ambulance.

She refused to let him inside and instead called the police, but the man allegedly broke through the door to her home in Rochester, New York.

The award-winning bodybuilder said she was able to hide in the partial darkness as she looked for something to defend herself with, eventually grabbing a nearby table.

Recounting her story in front of friends at the YMCA, where she works out most days, Ms Murphy told local station WHAM-TV: “I’m alone and I’m old, but guess what? I’m tough.

“He picked the wrong house to break into; I took that table and I went to working on him.”

Ms Murphy said the table eventually broke so she began jabbing the man with its metal legs instead.

“When he’s down, I’m jumping on him – and the telephone is still on for 911,” she said.

“I’m running in the kitchen, there’s a bottle of baby shampoo on the table. I grab the shampoo and guess what? He’s still on the ground. In his face, the whole thing.

“He’s trying to get up and I’ve got the broom and he’s pulling the broom and I’m hitting him with the broom.”

She added: “He wants to get the heck out of there and I’m trying to help him get out of the house but he’s too heavy, I can’t move him. He’s dead weight.”

At that point, police officers arrived and detained the man, who had to be taken to hospital.

“I really did a number on that man,” said Ms Murphy. “I think he was happy when he went in the ambulance, because I sent him in the ambulance.”

According to ABC’s Wham-TV, Ms Murphy, who is about five feet tall and can deadlift 225 pounds, does not intend to press charges against the intruder.