La Brea woman chases away cutlass-wielding home invaders

A 63-year-old grandmother from Sobo Village, La Brea, who was chopped during a home invasion, fought a valiant fight and held her own against a cutlass-wielding intruder on October 14.

Her two attackers had to hightail it without any loot when they realised she was not giving up.

In the encounter, Peggy Ann Athill suffered a gaping chop wound to her right hand, which needed emergency surgery at the Point Fortin Hospital and approximately 20 stitches to save her thumb.

Athill said she was attacked by a man and his 14-year-old nephew from the district. She said she identified the teenager as one of the perpetrators when she saw him at the La Brea Police Station, checking in with the police as a condition of his bail from the Youth Training Centre (YTC).

She complained, “I pointed him out to the police when I went to make a report and told them he was one of the two who invaded my home, but the police said they did not have sufficient evidence to arrest him.”

In an interview at her home on October 16, Athill surrounded by five of her eight grandchildren, who live with her, said she was not afraid and was standing on her faith.

She declined to be photographed, however.

While the incident lasted for just a few minutes, Athill said the experience will remain with her as long as she lives.

Leaning on the railing of her gallery with her bandaged right hand very visible, Athill said she did not think during the melee, but reacted instinctively, determined that the bandits would not get their hands on anything she had worked hard to acquire.

She relived the incident, recalling she was in the kitchen and alone at the home she shares with her daughter, son-in-law and their five children. Both the front and back doors were locked.

Around 9 am she heard her dog barking constantly. Finding this strange, she went outside and looked under the house, but seeing nothing amiss, went back in.

As she stepped back in through the front door, “I heard something go, 'Doop.' That happens when you walking in the house.”

She looked into one of the bedrooms and was confronted by an intruder.

They were shocked to see each other.

“I was not expecting anyone to come into my house, and he looked like he did not expect anyone to be home, because the place was quiet.”

As she and the assailant locked eyes, she turned to retreat, “but he grabbed me by my neck and started squeezing it. He said my son owed him money and he came for it.

"I told him my son owed no one. Then he said he came for the gold, and I told him I don't have any gold.

“He hit me on my mouth and burst my lips as I started to scream. He told me not to scream, not to make no noise.”

She said she did not know where she found the courage and strength, but she retaliated.

“I told him, 'You can't come into my house and tell me don't scream or make noise.'

“I started to scream louder, thinking my neighbour was home. She was not at home.

“We started struggling, me and the man, who must have come through one of the windows. He grab on to me and I grab on to he. We fell to the ground, still struggling.

"We ended up on the stove. The bottom of the stove broke, but I held on and he held on.

“He was wearing a mask, but during the scuffle, the mask fell off and I recognised him.”

Unmasked and realising she was overpowering him, the man made to leave through the back door.

“I opened the back door and his nephew, who was acting as the lookout, was waiting right on the step for him. The two of them then fled.”

Athill said after they left she realised she was bleeding from an injury to her hand, and recalled seeing the assailant with a rusty cutlass with no handle.

“I called my son and the police. The police took a long time to come, because they said they only have the use of one vehicle, which is shared between the Guapo and La Brea stations.

“When they came, they stood in the yard and took some information. They never came inside.

"I later went to the station and gave a full report.”

Reflecting on the experience, Athill said God gave her the strength to fight back.

“I am no fighter, but when push come to shove, you have to do what you have to do. I was in a fight for my life, not prepared for them to take something that was mine.

“I work hard for every little thing I have. I don't have much. I don't know what they feel I have, but regardless of what they feel, what I have is mine. I in my own place. You can't come in my place and demand what I have. I working hard for whatever I own.”

She said her one regret is “that I did not give him some punches, which I wanted to do.”

Lamenting the escalating crime situation, Athill said she does not see the situation improving.

“But I am not afraid. God did not give me a spirit of fear. If I did not fight back, I could have been killed. Thank God nothing worse happened.”

La Brea police are continuing investigations.