82-year-old N.Y. powerlifter beats up burglar

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC/NBC News) – People who know 82-year-old Willie Murphy are calling her a hero.

When a burglar broke into her Rochester, New York home last week, she took action and he went to the hospital.

Murphy spends a lot of time at the YMCA. She works out religiously three times a week.

She’s been powerlifting for the last eight years.

Thursday night all of her training paid off.

“It was 11 o’clock at night… I was just getting ready to go upstairs to get ready for bed,” Murphy said.

Murphy heard someone ringing her doorbell repeatedly. She answered and a man told her he had been shot.

Murphy called 911.

“So I’m giving them my address and guess what happens,” Murphy said. “Boom he breaks into my house and he’s in the living room.”

Murphy says she had the advantage; it was dark and he didn’t know the layout of her home.

She reached for the closest thing she could find.

“I picked up the TV tray,” she said. “The wood is that thick and it had some kind of metal legs. It broke! The table broke in half ’cause I was wailing on his behind.”