When an intruder broke into the California home of 67-year-old Lorenza Marrujo earlier this week, he had no way of knowing the petite woman had 26 years of martial arts training under her belt... But he found out soon enough.
The Fontana resident, who lives in an apartment complex for seniors, says that after she scared off the intruder on Monday, he left and broke into her 81-year-old neighbor's apartment. When Marrujo heard her scream, she ran to her aid.
"I squeezed myself between her and him," Marrujo says. " I jumped on him and I was punching him and everything, and I had the cane against his throat. He was saying, 'You’re hurting me, you’re hurting me.'"
She held the suspect until police arrived.
Marrujo's neighbor, Elizabeth McCray, says she had no idea her friend packed such a punch.
"I didn’t expect that little lady would be that brave," McCray says. "I said, 'Could you be careful? He’s gonna kill us.' She said, 'Not tonight.'"
McCray was later taken into the hospital, but got released the next day.
“We recommend that you dial 911 for emergency assistance, which, in this case, she did that, and she also jumped in,” Jennie Venzor, spokesperson for the Fontana Police Department, said. “What she told me is that her training kicked in, and it was like a muscle memory. She knew she had to help her friend out.”
Read the full report on CBS Los Angeles.