Unit 9. Reading

Super Gran

It was broad daylight and lots of people were out shopping in Northampton city centre on Saturday. Suddenly, a gang of six criminals attacked a jewellery shop. They were wearing black jackets and black ski hats to hide their faces.

Their plan was to smash the big glass windows of the jewellery shop, steal as much valuable jewellery as they could and then quickly escape on motorbikes before anyone could do anything. They thought that nobody would stop them. But they were wrong.

As the gang were smashing the window, a seventy-year-old woman saw what they were trying to do. She ran up to them and started hitting the men on the head with her handbag. The men were very surprised when they saw that their attacker was an old lady. They were so shocked that they dropped the jewellery and tried to run away. But now other shoppers had seen what was happening and came to help the old lady. The shop assistants locked the shop and called the police. Four of the men were arrested.

The whole incident was filmed on the mobile phone of a passer-by. He put the film on the Internet and the story was in all the newspapers: ‘Granny stops armed robbers’. And what about the old lady? Nobody knows who she is! Police questioned people at the scene, but they said she had gone to have a cup of tea and then quietly disappeared.