Marjorie Perkins tells the story.

Gulf Today Report

What happens if a robber breaks into your home and starts assaulting you? Would you be scared and give in, or would you retaliate? Chances are ten to one you would hit back at the assailant first, before he starts snatching items from the house. But would you feed, repeat feed, the burglar? The answer from most of you would be a definite no-no but not for an 87-year-old woman from Maine, US. She bravely warded off the attack from a teenage robber, then fed him as he said he was ‘awfully hungry.’

The woman, Marjorie Perkins, said she woke up in the early hours of July 26 to see a young man standing over her bed. He told her he was going to cut her.

Anyone else would have got the jitters and begged to spare his or her life. But not Perkins. The bold woman then thought to herself, “If he's going to cut, then I’m going to kick,” she said.

She put on her shoes and fought back, putting a chair between them as the two jostled in her Brunswick home. The intruder struck her on the cheek and forehead before hitting the ‘pause button’. He headed straight for the kitchen. He told Perkins that he was “awfully hungry," she said.

So, she gave him a box of peanut butter and honey crackers, two protein drinks and two tangerines.

Perkins dialled 911 on her rotary phone and was talking to a dispatcher while the intruder left. He left behind a knife, shirt, shoes and a water bottle containing alcohol, she said, according to the Independent.

Police did not take long in tracking down the teenager and charged him with burglary, criminal threatening, assault and consuming liquor as a minor. Authorities did not release his identity because of his age.

Because of what she did, Perkins has hit social media stardom, making her a celebrity of sorts. But this incident does not scare her or make her leave her home. She is very much attached to it because she has lived in that house for 42 years. But what concerns her more is widespread crime, which seems to have become worse over the years. What’s more, robbers and lowlifes these days don’t just care whether they go to jail or not, she feels.

“I think our law has just folded up," she said. “People aren’t afraid of anything anymore. They feel they can do as they please.”