Famed kissing sailor thwarts burglary

PLANTATION, Fla., Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Navy sailor Carl Muscarello, who became famous from a Life magazine photo of him kissing a nurse, thwarted a burglary at his Florida home.

The Miami Herald reported that the 80-year-old, whose kiss in New York City's Times Square on V-J Day in 1945 became one of the most famous photographs of World War II, scared off one burglar at his Plantation home last Tuesday and held another until police arrived.

Upon discovering two burglars in his house, the former police detective promptly attacked one and restrained him while his fellow intruder ran out the front door.

"I jumped on this man's back and put a chokehold on him. I was surprised I could do it," Muscarello said. The intruder was attacking his stepson with a golf club.

Yet the former sailor was humble regarding his actions last week and in Alfred Eisenstaedt photograph, a moment he reenacted last year with his wife Shelly for their 60th anniversary.

"I often happen to be at a strange place at a strange time," he told the Herald.