Dan Donovan, pictured together with his spouse Barbara, managed to scare off three burglars together with his vintage Irish strolling stick, often known as a shillelagh (Image: AP)
An 81 year-old former US Marine was capable of scare off a gang of burglars together with his vintage strolling stick – and even landed a blow on one. Dan Donovan, from Chicago, used the standard Irish strolling stick, often known as a shillelagh, after being conned into letting the gang into his dwelling on November 4.
Dan and his spouse Barbara opened the door of their dwelling earlier this month to a person claiming to be a utility employee, who requested to see a basement fuse field. The couple accompanied him there, solely to listen to footsteps squeaking upstairs. Barbara yelled ‘Danny! Any individual’s in our bed room.’
Realizing they’d fallen sufferer to a con involving two different crooks, Dan ran upstairs to try to chase the opposite two males from their bed room. He stated: ‘I used to be looking for some kind of persuasive weapon.
‘So I picked up the Irish shillelagh and that turned out to be the equalizer as a result of I managed to chase them out of the home.’
Dan’s shillelagh belonged to his Irish grandfather, and got here in useful when a pretend electrical energy employee managed to con his means into his household’s dwelling (Image: AP)
The stick, which has a hardened knob of wooden at one finish, belonged to Dan’s Irish grandfather. He was in a position to make use of it to whack one of many three crooks on his head as he fled the home. Dan additionally delivered a number of extra blows to the criminals’ windshield and rear window as they fled in an SUV.
Dan stated afterwards: ‘Hopefully they bought nothing greater than a headache and hopefully they pursue one other occupation.’
The burglars have been capable of steal a pillowcase crammed with a few of the couple’s possessions with Dan saying he had thought of grabbing on to one of many males’s gold chains to choke him.
He and Barbara fell sufferer to the con after receiving a real letter from their power firm the day past, saying that its employees could be making a future go to to verify their energy, the Journal & Topics reported.
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