87-year-old woman fights off home intruder, then offers him snacks 

An 87-year-old woman fought off a man who attempted to break into her home in Brunswick, Maine while she was sleeping. But in a surprising move, she offered him food to keep him there until the police arrived at the scene. 

On July 26, Marjorie Perkins woke up to a man standing by her bed. He had “no shirt on, and it was dark,” she said. 

“I’m going to cut you,” the man told her. 

Perkins immediately jumped out of bed and grabbed a nearby chair to use as a shield to protect her from the intruder. 

“He kept knocking me against the wall, he put a bruise on my forehead and one on my cheek,” Perkins said.

The woman said the man eventually “got tired of that” and stopped the attack. He then began walking towards her kitchen and told her that he was hungry. 

“He stopped in the kitchen by the sink and said he was very hungry, and he hadn’t had anything to eat in a long time,” Perkins said.

Perkins offered him a “box of peanut butter and honey crackers,” some tangerines, and two protein drinks. But it wasn’t so much out of the goodness of her heart that she gave him food. It was to keep him distracted, she said. While the man was eating, she called 911. 

“That was to keep him busy, what do you think? I taught school (for) 35 years,” Perkins said.

When the man finished eating, he walked out the door but left behind his shoes, shirt, and knife. 

Perkins recognized the intruder. She said he used to mow her lawn for cash when he was a kid and she knows members of his family. 

Police found the young man at a nearby residence, where he was arrested. He has since been transferred to a youth development center. He faces charges of burglary, criminal threatening, assault, and civil infraction.