81-Year-Old Woman in UK Fights Off Would-Be Mugger Trying to Steal Her Bank Card at ATM

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An 81-year-old widow in Blackheath, the United Kingdom, showed that she wasn’t to be messed with by defending herself against a would-be thief at a cash ATM. Doreen Jones was captured on camera withdrawing money at a Lloyds Bank machine in the center of town when she was approached by a young woman begging.

The young woman refused to leave Jones alone and eventually tried to grab her bank card as it was coming out of the cash machine. That’s when the pensioner struck back. “I grabbed my card first, put it in my hand, then grabbed her quick,” Jones told BBC Crimewatch. “I got her hair as well as her collar and she started screaming.”

The senior told the BBC that the suspect wasn’t prepared for the response. “She wasn’t expecting me, I tell you. She was expecting somebody more vulnerable.”

Doreen Jones, a retired welder who has been widowed twice and lives alone, is used to looking after herself. When she went into town on May 20, 2019, it seemed that she was alone at first. “When I got to the ATM, it was just me there,” she told Crimewatch. Though the 81-year-old uses a cane to help her walk, she is spry and active, as her response to the attempted mugging demonstrated.

The young woman who nearly stole her ATM card came up from behind her and tapped her on the shoulder, pretending to be deaf and showing Jones a piece of paper asking for food. CCTV footage showed the woman continually tapping on Jones’s arms even after the elderly woman told her to go away. Finally, the would-be thief changed position. “I thought, ‘oh, she’s gone,’” Jones explained.

Then the suspect walked around and made a grab for the card. Jones immediately got in the way. “I thought ‘No, you’re not having my money, I’ve worked hard for that,’” Jones told Crimewatch. “I grabbed my card first ... and grabbed her quick, like that.”

In the face of fierce resistance from the octogenarian, the young woman fled. “Once I let go of her, she ran off straight away around the corner,” Jones said. “It was afterwards when I collapsed, that everything went through my mind.” The rush of adrenaline, which gave the elderly woman a burst of strength during the encounter, had sapped her energy afterward.

After bank staff called an ambulance, the paramedics attended to Jones, who was having palpitations as a result of the shock. Since the attack, Jones has had two heart attacks due to the fright she suffered and feels anxious while near the site of the attack, according to The Daily Mail.

Jones has lived alone since 2006, when her second husband, Roy, passed away after battling cancer. She hasn’t let her solitude get to her, even after the frightening encounter. “You have to get on with your life and do what you can, as much as you can, and enjoy life while you’ve still got it,” she said.

While the suspect has yet to be apprehended, the CCTV footage shared by police allowed local people to get a good glimpse of the attacker. “She may do this again,” police staff investigator Peter Rawlins warned, though he also noted that Jones is “a tough lady and this suspect picked the wrong pensioner.”