It would be lovely if the world was a place of kindness, support, and security. Unfortunately, there are a few people out there who ruin it for the rest of us.

When it comes to crime, the elderly are often the targets. They’re assumed vulnerable, easy prey. To show anything but respect to the elderly is a crime in itself, but unfortunately, many younger criminals don’t seem to care.

You only need to look at information supplied by the UK’s Freedom of Information laws to see that there’s a real problem with violent assaults of victims at the age of 65 older. In fact, the number of this type of crime has massively increased – by a shocking 258% – from 2007 to 2017.

While it’s always upsetting to hear that an elderly person has been taken advantage of, some stories are more uplifting than others. Take Winfred Peel, aged 77. She lives in Bromborough, Wirral, in the UK, and certainly gave her robbers more than what they bargained for!

On her way out of the bank one day, Peel noticed three men lurking around. She thought they looked a bit shifty, but decided to pay them no attention. She stopped to take money out of the nearby ATM machine – and that’s when the trouble began.

The men, later identified as Piper Dumitru, Florin Geblescu, and Felix Stoica, had a plan in place to steal money from an unsuspecting ATM user, and Peel was their next victim. As she was withdrawing money, she sensed that somebody was standing very close to her side.

The next thing she knew, that person began to push her.

If the men had expected Peel to budge out of the way, or perhaps even fall over, they were wrong. Peel was an avid gym-goer – not that they knew that! – and stood her ground.

It was at this point that the man who was pushing her stopped, and said, rather bemused: “It’s not working.” We bet they’d never met a lady quite as defiant as Peel!

Out of desperation, one of the other robbers managed to get around Peel and withdraw £200 of her money from the ATM. But Peel wasn’t letting him get away unscathed. In a move of a woman half her age, she got hold of his collar and bashed his head three times against the machine.

Unfortunately, the robbers were able to escape with Peel’s cash, but it didn’t take long for them to be caught by the police. As it turned out, these robbers had been involved in their fair share of crime over the past months.

The video of the attack soon went viral. We can see Peel chasing the robbers away, swinging her handbag at them while the cowardly men struggle to start up their motorbike.

Peel spoke out about her actions on the day that made her famous, saying, “They did not care about how this would affect me. I would definitely say this has changed my life, I will never have the confidence I once did. I only hope my confidence returns.” While she may have defended herself fearlessly, the incident has clearly impacted her life going forward.

In Peel’s case, this story ends well. The young men were found guilty of the crime and sentenced to a young offenders’ institution (the UK’s version of a juvenile detention center). 19-year-old Stoica received two years, while Geblescu, 18, received 18 months. 18-year-old Dumitru, would be locked up for 8 months.

We’re incredibly proud of Peel for standing against her attackers, but she has become just another statistic of this heartless type of crime. Hopefully her response sends a message to all the petty criminals out there – don’t assume that grannies are easy targets, as they might just prove you wrong!

Click here to watch the footage of the robbery as it unfolded.

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Source: Metro UK, Bored Daddy, Express UK, Public Domain Pictures