S.C. woman, 89, wards off robbers

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BLENHEIM, S.C., July 25 (UPI) -- An 89-year-old South Carolina woman said she used her .38-caliber pistol to ward off two men who broke into her home.

Ruby Hodge of Blenheim said she heard knocking on her door just after 8 a.m. Monday and was on her way to answer when two men forced their way through the door, the Florence Daily News reported Wednesday.

Hodge said she retrieved the gun, which belonged to her late husband, from beneath her mattress and the men arrived at her bedroom to find her pointing the revolver at them.

"They take off and run," she said.

Hodge pressed the emergency alert button on her Lifeline necklace and Marlboro County Sheriff Fred Knight arrived within minutes.

"I was just amazed," Knight said. "When she told me she met the intruders with a handgun pointed at them, she said they went out faster than they came in. She is my hero!"

Knight said Ronnie Henry Stevenson Jr., 31, and Nelson Hawkins, 42, were later arrested after a neighbor took down their license plate number and turned it over to authorities.