Woman punches thief, sets dog loose

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Three armed masked burglars, who barged into a house in Belgaum and tried to rob a family of three, were outwitted by a 47-year-old housewife, who kicked one of them in the groin and let loose the family dog on them, sending them running for their lives.

Terry Fernandes, wife of a retired mechanical engineer from the Gulf, was in her kitchen working at around 10 pm Wednesday night while her husband and daughter watched television on the first first floor of the house, when she heard repeated knocking at the front door. “When I opened the door, I was shocked to see three masked men. They pushed me inside with one of them holding my hand tight and placing a knife against my temple. As I shouted, my husband and daughter started to run downstairs, but seeing two of the burglars rush up to attack them, they quickly locked themselves in a room on the first floor,'' Terry recounted.

The burglar, who held her hand, demanded she hand over all the valuables and money and began to push towards the kitchen door which was not latched, when she did not listen. “As I was being pushed, I thought of my dog chained in the backyard and gathering all my courage, kicked the burglar who held me, in the groin. He fell to the kitchen floor in pain with his knife flying out of his hand. I ran out of the kitchen door into the backyard and quickly released my dog,'' she said.

The burglar began limping to the front door in a desperate attempt to escape without the booty he had come for as the ferocious dog began to bark and chase him. Hearing the commotion, the two other burglars on the first floor ran downstairs in fear and began to look for the nearest exit route. Before Terry's neighbours could come to her help, the three got on their two-wheelers parked outside and fled, leaving their masks and caps behind. “The burglars were conversing in good Hindi and did not look like locals,'' Terry said. A case has been filed at the APMC police station and the hunt is on for the burglars.