An elderly man in England successfully fended off a would-be robber using only a pair of pants.
Ron Croker, an 84-year-old retired former trade foreman, was folding his clothes earlier this month at Coin-Op Launderette near Rotherham in South Yorkshire, England, when a masked individual demanded his money, according to The Times of London.
He decided to fight the attempted thief.
But he was forced to do that with the only objects available to him at that moment.
“I had a pair of jeans and shirt in my hand, and that’s when he started flying through the door at me,” Croker described to the Times.
The assailant was shouting and swearing at him, according to Croker.
“I didn’t have any fear when he was coming screaming at me,” he continued. “I can scream loud, and I just started yelling back at him.”
The would-be thief demanded his wallet and reached for it, but Croker whipped him in the face with a pair of denim jeans, forcing the assailant back.
“When I swung at him, he stepped back, and I caught him. I shoved him out the shop, and he nearly went through the door,” Croker described.
Should criminals who target the elderly receive extra punishment?
But the altercation continued.
Croker folded his jeans and tried to return to his laundry when the assailant returned.
The elderly Englishman said, he “started swinging” with those trusty jeans once again, forcing the would-be thief away.
“I said to him through door, ‘If you come back in here,’ I said, ‘I’m gonna f***ing kill you,’ though I didn’t feel like I really would,” Croker told the Times.
“I have never experienced nowt like that in my life,” he said.
“I’ve had fights and scuffled when I was younger, but when he was coming at me, I thought I couldn’t back down; there was no one there to help me. It was either me or him, and I won.”
Croker indeed recalled that, unfortunately for the want-to-be robber, he had learned to defend himself in his teenage years, which of course was decades ago.
“He just picked on the wrong bloke. He wanted my money, and I wasn’t giving it to him.”
WARNING: The following video contains vulgar language that some readers may find offensive.
Robber vs. 84-year-old Ron Croker and his jeans.
Ron won. Twice. 👖
For more #nocomment videos > https://t.co/f4lUW8IpTG pic.twitter.com/YdfI4TuEJx
— NoComment (@nocomment) January 15, 2025
Croker called the police from the laundromat and waited for them to arrive. He was unharmed except for some bruising on his hands and his arm.
Then he called his wife, Valerie, to whom he has been married for 60 years and with whom he has cared for 15 foster children.
“I phoned her and said, ‘I’ll be a bit longer. I’ve been mugged, but don’t worry, I’m not hurt, and the washing is dry,’” he reassured his bride.
The footage of his bold self-defense with nothing but a pair of jeans soon circulated online.
“Everybody seems to know me and says I’m a hero, but I don’t class it like that,” Croker said. “I just did what I could to protect myself.”
A few days later a man was arrested and charged with attempted robbery.
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