Wednesday, March 4, 2009

panned

By now I'm sure you all have heard of spry and scrappy Ellen Basinski who chased off four burglars by whacking them with a saucepan. 70 years old and fighting back! Good for her, right? I was delighted when I read the story until I noticed something...

Ellen was speaking on the phone with her husband, a family court judge, when the incident happened.

The judge told his secretary to call 9-1-1 and he and his bailiff, Tony Piwinski, jumped in a car and drove toward the house.

The courthouse is just a few miles from his home, but they got stuck in traffic.

(Only minutes away. 12, to be exact.)

Once Judge Basinski finally made it home he said he was "grateful things ended as well as they did" but he had a long talk with his wife.
"She did all the things I told her never to do in that kind of situation," he said. "We've been married 47 years and she raised our five sons. She's not afraid of anything."
(Don't fight back; give them what they want; don't resist, you'll only make them angry.)

Your honor, you're a lucky man. You married a fighter, not a victim, and you'd do well to remember that. Encouraging victimhood is no kind of love.

18 comments:

Mike W. said...

"She did all the things I told her never to do in that kind of situation," he said. "We've been married 47 years and she raised our five sons. She's not afraid of anything."

My father deals with the worst scum my state has to offer and sadly, he shares this man's viewpoint. It's always amazed me that someone who should be so acutely aware of just how violent people can be will still say "Don't resist, give them what they want."

I simply do not understand that mentality. If they're in your house they're not there for milk & cookies.

I'm glad this woman fought back. I know it's what my grandparents would do (and they have)

alan said...

Always fight back.

They're not expecting it and you'll have an advantage.

Lydia said...

Emeril LaGasse sent her a free set of pans when he read the story...she's now ready for war.

Bob S. said...

Here is another story for you...this happened just up the street from where I live.

Purse Thieves, Don't Mess With This Grandma Victim chases man, hits him with car


A 65-year-old grandmother says she chased down a man who had just snatched her purse, hit him with her car and held him until police arrived.

"I was madder than hell is what I was," Val Renfro said. "I didn't think about anything else except, 'He's not going to get away with this.'

Anonymous said...

Ellen needs a spousal upgrade.

Anonymous said...

I can't blame her husband for panning her decision, but it is well that she didn't let her afternoon go to pot.

Jim

w/v: woopok. Say it out loud, I dare you.

Jay G said...

Jim is very skillet with puns.

Home on the Range said...

Good for her! I might be afraid to dent my good Emeril pan, but I wouldn't hesitate!

A .45 is better but there's nothing like Cast Iron to show the love.

Anonymous said...

I fry.

Jim

Buckshot said...

I think, since Emeril is sending her a new set of pans, that his judgeship (he apparently has no honor, so I can't call him his honor, or even hizzoner) ought to break out some of his moldy money and buy her a nice bigbore handgun so she doesn't have to swat people with pans any longer.

If he doesn't have the cojones to do that he ought to, at the very least, buy her one of those humongous Lodge cast iron skillets!

Buckshot

Mike W. said...

Guess this didn't pan out like the robbers had anticipated...

Jay G said...

At least she wasn't grilled by the cops.

TheAxe said...

Reminds me of Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies

Anonymous said...

He had a long talk with her?

It might be good for him that she had to turn over her favorite saucepan as evidence.

Holly said...

I like this: When she hit the guy with the saucepan,

"He looked at me and said, 'Lady, why did you do that?' And I hit him again."

Illustrates a point that LawDog has made more than once: victims and villians are always surprised when they get hit.

Ergo, fighting back is the right thing to do.

Anonymous said...

How can what she did be the wrong thing to do? It worked, didn't it?

Army of Dad said...

She was wrong, the metal they should have been hit with is lead, and that metal is not suitable for cooking.

B Smith said...

As I see it, her first mistake, as mentioned, was not having a firearm to shoot him with.
Her second mistake, absent a gun, is letting him get a question out of his mouth (however ridiculous) before pummeling him into thugburger. The invaders should have been driven off (or bloody and unconscious) before the cops were called.