By Fran Jeffries
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. — A Peachtree City grandmother was beaten and grazed with a shotgun pellet during a home invasion Friday night, but she fought back and escaped the attack, according to a Channel 2 Action News report.
“I was not going to be executed in my own home,” Cece Coffee told Channel 2. Coffee described her encounter with two suspects armed with a shotgun.
“I think it was Grannies Gone Wild,” Coffee said. “I don’t think they expected that amount of energy or strength from me, because I would grab his wrist and block his blows.”
Police said two men entered her home through an unlocked door. Coffee said the men believed she had a safe in her home, possibly because she owns a business. She said she decided to fight back when one of the men got rough.
“I was saying, ‘You’re not going to shoot me,’ ” she recalled. “‘I have no safe. You need to leave now, while you can.’ ”
Coffee said the men grew angrier as she resisted and dragged her into a bedroom.
That’s when she said one man started ripping cords out of the wall to tie her up and began searching for a blanket to throw over her head.
“I think it threw him off that I wouldn’t submit,” she said. “I was not going to be tied up, and I was not going to have a blanket put over my head.”
Hearing the commotion, her friend Jeff Young entered from the den, distracting the robbers, Coffee said. That’s when Coffee said she made a run for it. She got about 15 feet out of her home when she said she heard a gunshot.
“You cannot imagine the ringing in your ears when a shotgun goes off 15 feet behind you,” she told Channel 2. “I was listening for the second gunshot. I thought he was going to come back in and kill Jeff.”
“I’ll tell you, I was laying face down at that point,” Jeff Young told Channel 2. “When I heard the shot, I thought, ‘Oh Lord, I’m next.’ ”
Coffee was only grazed. She said she crawled through the dirt in her backyard. She made it to the house of a neighbor, who called police, she said.
Coffee was treated and released from the hospital and returned home. The robbers are still out there, but Coffee told Channel 2 she’s not concerned about a return visit.
“I think they should be concerned if they come back, because, as you can see, I have my gun on my lap.”
Coffee said the men were in their 20s and wearing all black, with black bandannas covering their faces. She said they left in a dark-colored pickup truck.
Anyone with information about this crime is asked to contact the Peachtree City Police Department at 770-631-2510.
Copyright 2012 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution