-
May 21, 2008 7:40 pm US/Eastern
-
Digg |
Facebook |
E-mail
|
Print
Man Fends Off Meat Cleaver-Wielding Burglar
MT. VERNON, N.Y. (CBS) ―
A burglar armed with a meat cleaver picked the wrong house in Mount Vernon to rob after the owner decided to put his life at risk and fight back.
Leroy Simpson, a 45-year-old taxi driver, said he found a man in his basement armed with the large knife early Monday morning.
"It was death or life, and I was not gonna let him take me out," Simpson told CBS 2.
The Jamaican-born cabbie said the frightening incident happened in the home he shares with his girlfriend and a 2-year-old around 12:30 Monday morning, after Simpson returned home from the job.
Simpson said he came down to his basement to turn up the heat when he saw the window open. He said one man was about to come through, and another man was already in the basement, holding a cell phone in one hand and a meat cleaver in the other.
"I lunged at him and when I lunged, I think I got him on his upper body, so his hands couldn't move or nothing," he said.
With the other culprint from the window long gone, Simpson struggled with the intruder on the stairway. As the burglar tried to get out the back door, Simpson flipped him down the stairs."
"When I flipped him back down the stairs now, he had that meat cleaver. And when I flip him the meat cleaver got him in his face and he lost the meat cleaver," he said.
The would-be robber then ran from the house.
Moments later, police noticed a man sitting in front of a home some three blocks away, and identified him as the suspect. Jerome Robinson, 25, of the Bronx, who was bleeding from a head wound and other cuts, was immediately arrested.
Robinson was treated at a hospital and will be charged with first degree burglary.
Intruders beware. Leroy Simpson may stand only 5-foot-4, but he packs a wallop.
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
WCBSTV.com's Most Popular Pages