Woman, 86, fights attacker half her age

NEW YORK, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- An 86-year-old New York woman said she rumbled with a 44-year-old attacker who tried to steal her bag while she was walking home from church.

Elizabeth Maropoulos said she was walking home Sunday from St. Malachi's Church Church on West 49th Street at Eighth Avenue when a man -- identified by police as Earl Wearing -- attacked her and attempted to take her bag, the New York Post reported Thursday.

"What a bad, bad boy. He's a bastard," Maropoulos said of the suspect. "Once I realized he was coming after me, I went kick, kick!"

"I wasn't scared. Somehow, he knocked me down. He got my bag. He got my money. It was about $100," she said.

However, law enforcement sources told the Post that Wearing did not get far from the scene before a witness pointed him out to police. He was charged with attempted robbery and jailed in lieu of $15,000 bail.

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