Don't mess with Grandma.
That's what one intruder who was breaking and entering into 82-year-old Willie Murphy's home. Little did he know that Murphy is a award-winning weightlifter and bodybuilder who can bench press probably more than him!
Willie Murphy says she was getting ready for bed Thursday night, just after 11 p.m., when a man began pounding on her door.
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“He was outside and saying, ‘Please call an ambulance,’ saying, ‘I’m sick, I’m sick,’” she told ABC 13 - WHAM.
She called the police, but wouldn’t let him inside. That, she says, is when he became angry.
“I hear a loud noise,” she said. “I’m thinking, 'What the heck was that? The young man is in my home. He broke the door.”
What the suspect likely didn’t realize is Murphy is an award-winning bodybuilder who works out at the YMCA almost every day.
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“He picked the wrong house to break into,” she said.
Murphy says it was dark, so she was able to hide as the suspect walked through her house. She acted quickly and grabbed the closest thing she could find.
“I picked up the table, and I went to work on him,” she said. ‘The table broke.”
“And when he’s down,” she continued, “I’m jumping on him.”
She says, once the suspect was injured, she ran and grabbed a bottle of shampoo – and started pouring it on him.
“I grabbed the shampoo,” she said. “Guess what? He’s still on the ground. In his face, all of it, the whole thing.”
“I got the broom,” she continued. “He’s pulling the broom. I’m hitting him with the broom.”
Finally, officers arrived. The man was sent to the hospital and Murphy was applauded by first responders.
“The officers that came wanted to go on my front porch and take selfies with me,” she said.
all started with a weight-lifting competition at her local YMCA in Rochester, New York, a few years ago. After an employee told her she could compete — “Go for it, granny” — Murphy began lifting 5-pound weights. Now she’s taking home trophies.
She holds the national records in the bench for reps, the strict curl, and Ironmaiden categories. Murphy was named the WNPF Lifter of the Year in 2014. And she now holds New York state records and national records across multiple WNPF age brackets.
She recently took first place in her division in the deadlift, power curl, bench press, and bench press repetition competitions at the WNPF World Championships.
There aren't any women close to Murphy's age for her to train with. In fact, Murphy got into the sport by picking up tips and techniques while watching men lift at the YMCA. She has never worked with a trainer.
"I was surprised that people were thinking that it was strange of me to be in the gym with mostly men at that particular time," Murphy said.
"But I kept getting stronger and stronger and I don't wear any belts, I don't use chalk and I don't use the ammonia like other people when they compete in a competition. It just happened. I guess I'm just one of those things that nature has taken good care of me."
Back at her local gym, other people who exercise have started asking to feel her biceps. One woman even called Murphy...
... her idol. “They see I’m old and I’m not being pushed around in a wheelchair,” she told USA Today.
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"I wanted to become better, to have a little edge in life, so I started the weight training," admitted Murphy. "Little by little I became stronger and stronger."
