Related stories: Help needed to catch crooks
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Finding a strange man in your house when you are home alone in the middle of the night would frighten almost anyone.
Anyone, that is except 88-year-old Bessie Garratty of Bomaderry.
It was 4.30 on Saturday morning when the brave woman heard a noise out the back of her Barwon Street home.
“I wasn’t asleep. I had the radio on and it was very loud as I didn’t have my hearing aid on, but I heard a noise out the back and I saw a flash in my bedroom,” said Mrs Garratty.
“I looked in the room, but I couldn’t see anyone, so I went out the back and saw the window was open.
“As I came back he came out of the bedroom and pulled the linen cupboard open.
“I wasn’t frightened, I was cranky.
“I punched him and said, ‘Get out of my house’.
“He wasn’t dangerous, he just wanted money.
“I went to the phone in the hall and dialled 000, but he grabbed it and threw it to the floor.
“He knocked me down and told me to stay there.
“Normally it’s difficult for me to get up,” said Mrs Garratty who gets around with the aid of a walker.
“But I got up quickly and I remembered my VitalCall.”
Mrs Garratty pressed her personal alarm and a loud blast sounded.
“He was throwing things out of drawers and I opened the front door and said, ‘Get out!’
“But he went out the way he came in.”
Although Mrs Garratty acted very bravely, she was injured during the home invasion.
On Saturday morning Ambulance paramedics treated her for minor grazes to her right leg. She was having the dressings replaced on Monday morning when the South Coast Register spoke to her.
“I think it’s all catching up with me a bit,” said Mrs Garratty.
“I’m alright but I’m all bruised and have a cut and my neck is jarred.”
Shoalhaven Police have encouraged Mrs Garratty to share her story in the hope it may help catch the intruder.
They are looking for a large build Caucasian man who was wearing dark clothing and a black balaclava at the time.
Thanks to Mrs Garratty’s bravery he left the house empty-handed.
“He didn’t take a thing, he was only looking for money.”
The only thing she is missing is a nightdress which the police took away to test for DNA.
Mrs Garratty acknowledged crime is a problem without a solution. She said two of her neighbours were broken into recently, but she doesn’t let it rule her life.
“I’ve never been frightened, and I’m still not frightened.”
Just last month, Bessie was featured in the South Coast Register, when she was honoured for her 30 years of service to Anglicare.
Mrs Garratty began her volunteer work in 1969 and told the Register she had enjoyed being able to give back to her community.