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82-year-old bodybuilder fights off home invader: ‘He picked the wrong house’

Click to play video: '82-year-old powerlifter fights off home invader'
82-year-old powerlifter fights off home invader
WATCH: 82-year-old powerlifter fights off home invader – Nov 26, 2019

One home intruder picked the wrong house, and the wrong woman, to mess with.

Willie Murphy, 82, was getting ready for bed when a man broke into her home Thursday night around 11 p.m. The man reportedly banged on her door, yelling: “I’m sick, I’m sick.”

Knowing better than to let a stranger inside, Willie called the police and kept her door shut, which, she said, angered the “sick” man.

READ MORE: Man withdraws large sum of money, then allegedly robbed by bank teller

“I hear a loud noise, I’m thinking, ‘What the heck was that?'” she told WHAM-TV. “The young man is in my home. He broke the door.”

A seasoned bodybuilder and regular at the Maplewood YMCA location, Murphy didn’t waste a moment springing to action.

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As the attempted thief moved through her home, Murphy hid in the darkness before picking up a table and using it as a weapon.

“I picked up the table, and I went to work on him,” she told the broadcast station. “The table broke … And when he’s down, I’m jumping on him.”

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It was easy work for Murphy, who said she can deadlift 225 pounds.

Click to play video: 'Penticton couple retells violent home invasion'
Penticton couple retells violent home invasion

With the table broken, she then went for a bottle of shampoo to fend off the intruder.

“I grabbed the shampoo. Guess what? He’s still on the ground,” she said. “In his face, all of it, the whole thing.”

But that wasn’t enough — she enlisted the help of a broom, too.

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“I got the broom,” she continued. “He’s pulling the broom. I’m hitting him with the broom.”

READ MORE: Pregnant Florida woman uses AR-15 rifle to kill armed home invader

Officers arrived and, according to Murphy, wanted to snap a selfie with her, the local hero.

“He picked the wrong house to break into,” she said.

Murphy is an award-winning bodybuilder and works out at the Rochester YMCA nearly every day.

Police say the man in question was intoxicated and was taken to the hospital, but Murphy isn’t pressing charges.

Her friend Jim Marron said he weighs twice as much as her, and “wouldn’t want to tango with her.”

“Don’t mess with Willie.”

meaghan.wray@globalnews.ca

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