FORT WORTH -- An 80-year-old widow has an unusual message for the five men who broke into her east Fort Worth home early Tuesday and robbed her.
"Thank you."The woman had been dozing in her recliner while watching TV around 12:30 a.m. when she heard a "terrific noise" from the front of the house."It sounded like an explosion in the front of my house," said the woman, who asked not to be identified for her safety. "I got to my back hall, looked to my right, and here comes three black men coming my way. The first one had a gun. He had it within inches of my chest."The woman looked left and saw two other men approaching through her den."You can't believe how calm I was," the woman said."I saw them coming down the hall, and I said to myself a silent prayer: 'Lord, you've always watched over me. Watch over me through this. Circle me in your arms and loving grace.' And he did."The woman said the men ordered her to sit on the couch and asked for her money and valuables."They kept saying, 'We're not going to hurt you. We're not going to hurt you.' And they didn't. They never touched me in any way," she said.When one of the men asked her for jewelry, she handed him her gold wedding band from her 46-year marriage and an anniversary ring that her husband had given her a year before he died."He said, 'This is your wedding band, isn't it?'" the woman recalled."I said 'yes' and he handed them back to me. When he did that, I knew they were not going to hurt me."The man's action even surprised Sgt. Joe Loughman, head of the robbery unit that is investigating the home invasion."In 20 years -- never heard of that," Loughman said.The men did steal other items, including two televisions, cash and a cellphone. They also made off with a Tiffany lamp that the woman had asked one of the robbers not to break as he knocked things off a cabinet trying to get the TV."He must have thought that one was valuable or maybe he liked the color," she surmised. "It had red roses on it."In the 15 minutes or so that the men were inside her home, the woman said, she couldn't resist admonishing them."I said, 'Do you think that your mother or grandmother would be proud of y'all doing this kind of thing?'" the woman said.She got no reply.Neighbors, who had heard the crash of the door being kicked in, called 911 after looking outside to see the men running from the house and loading televisions into the trunk of a dark-colored car.The woman said she's bothered that the young men forced their way into her home."It's my place I come to shut out the world, but here the world has intruded on an area that is mine," she said.Especially, the woman said, because she believes in helping those in need."If I'm at the grocery store and someone needs some money, I hand them a $20 bill and I'll say, 'Lord, thank you that you have blessed me that I can give somebody a $20 bill,'" she said.But the woman said she is not angry and, rather, feels somewhat appreciative of the men, who police described as black and in their 20s and 30s."Possessions are possessions. They can either be replaced or you can do without them," she said."I thank them for not hurting me and being considerate of me because I thought that was kindness that he gave me back my wedding rings. I just thought that was really sweet."I don't guess anybody would think home invaders were sweet, but they didn't hurt me. They never said a curse word or were foulmouthed or anything."Still, the woman added, "I wish they'd get in another line of work."Deanna Boyd, 817-390-7655Twitter: @deannaboydHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
