71-Year-Old Beats Armed Intruder With Swiffer

Deputies: Gunman Threatens Man Cleaning Kitchen

POSTED: 9:31 am EDT September 16, 2010
UPDATED: 6:12 am EDT September 17, 2010

SPARTANBURG COUNTY, S.C. -- A Spartanburg County man got rid of more than dirt Wednesday night as he was cleaning his home.

Deputies said 71-year-old Phillip Graham, of Tucker Road, was cleaning his kitchen just after 9 p.m. when a man dressed in black wearing a ski mask barged in the back door.

Graham said, "I had been in and out of the house several times, taking the garbage out to the barrel and putting some more in the can right by the back door. I stepped back in the house, didn't bother to lock the door because I wasn't sure whether I was through going in and out. By that time, this guy opened the door, stepped foot in my house."

The man, who was wearing a ski mask, appeared to have a pistol in his hand, Graham said.

Graham was armed too, but only with a Dustbuster in one hand and a Swiffer in the other.

"He told me to get down and I grabbed the Swiffer, started jabbing him with it and it broke off, so I still kept on jabbing,” Graham said. "I told him, 'You get out of my house, you sorry son of a bitch, I'll kill you.' I kept jabbing him and he backed out and ran to the back of the house and then across behind the house."

The gunman ran out the back door and across the back yard toward Staley Drive, deputies said.

No one was hurt, and nothing was taken from the home, deputies said.

Graham said his wife was in the shower during the whole altercation, and didn't know what was going on until she came out of the bathroom and found him on the phone to 911.

He said he thinks their house was chosen because the carport light was on.

Graham said he hopes his Swiffer defense made an impression.

Graham said, "Hopefully that will discourage some of these young bucks that people are not going to stand for them coming in your house uninvited -- let them know that not all of us are going to stand for them to bully us around."

Graham said next time, he won’t rely on his Swiffer. He said he plans to have his gun handy.

From: http://www.wyff4.com/r/25034274/detail.html