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 descried the harrowing experience she said she had 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," she said.
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 on this crime is asked to contact the Peachtree City Police Department at 770-631-2510.
