WEST ALLIS, Wis. - A World War II veteran fought off a burglary suspect with the help of his daughter in their West Allis home this month.
Frederick Bennett, 95, was watching TV on Dec. 4 around 7 p.m. when his dog Hugo started barking. The former Marine got up to check it out.
He looked in the kitchen then noticed the closed bedroom door. He tried to open it but it got stuck.
"So I am leaning like this and the guy is standing flat against the wall and I'm almost nose to nose to him," Bennett said.
The 95-year-old yelled at the man to get out of his house.
"At first I told him, 'What are you doing here?' Then I told him, 'Get the hell out of here,'" Bennett said. "Then he stopped and then he said, 'I want your wallet, give me your wallet. Cause I'll kill ya. I'll kill the dog.'"
The veteran grabbed the burglar by his collar and pants and tried to throw him out his back door. But the burglar grabbed Bennett's wallet.
"Then I was mad. Then I was trying to get the wallet back from him and I was reaching around his waist and we both went down on the floor," Bennett said.
As the 95-year-old wrestled with the burglar his 51-year-old daughter heard the commotion. She left her son upstairs and came running.
"As soon as I came through that doorway I see my dad on the floor with his arms wrapped around this guy standing in our kitchen. I didn't even think I just reacted," said Mary Bennett.
Mary sprang into action and took over the fight. She wrestled the burglar to the back door where she said he bit her arm and threatened her, so she opened the back door to get him out of the house. But she didn't let him go. While her dad called the police she chased the burglar through her neighborhood.
"He said, 'I'm sorry.' And I said, 'Sorry doesn't cut it.' I said, 'Stop running.' And he goes, 'Leave me alone I said I was sorry.' I said, 'I'm not leaving you alone until you are in handcuffs,'" Mary said.
She tackled the guy and held him until police got there. Gary Wells, 53, was charged with burglary and battery. Mary even got her dad's wallet back.
"Very proud. She was the hero," Bennett said.
The Bennetts said if they did it all over again they are not sure they would fight the man off. They say luckily, the worst they ended up with was cuts and bruises.
