Lawton, Oklahoma

From KSWO of May 4, 2007

Pistol packin' grandma stops robbery attempt at her liquor store

Criminals listen up. You might want to think twice before messing with one pistol-packin' grandma. A couple of would-be-robbers found out the hard way when they tried to hold up a west Lawton liquor store. What they didn't know was that the owner, 75-year-old Rosemarie O'Keeffe, was waiting for them-- armed with a gun and ready to pull the trigger. It seems they changed their minds pretty quickly when they realized they were staring down the barrel of her pistol.

O'Keeffe says she just did what she had to do to protect herself and her business. She was behind the register at her liquor store this week, when she saw something that didn't look right. Two men wearing hoodies, with gauze bandages over their faces walking up to her store. "It really made me think an ancient mummy, the way he was covered up, so you know he wasn't doing anything good."

O'Keeffe says it happened very quick. She could see out of the window from her register, saw the two guys walk by, and by the time they got to the door, she had a surprise for them.

"I said, 'Oh my God he's going to rob me. What do I do?' I get up. I grab my gun and I point it at the door. He came in and I said, 'Get out or I'll shoot'."

She wasn't joking. That was all the two masked men needed to see. O'Keeffe says they immediately high-tailed it out the door and ran away through the alley.

"I had them all in my view. I could have shot them. I could have killed them both."

O'Keeffe says her sons taught her how to use a gun, and when she told them what had happened, they couldn't have been prouder. So, is her daughter-in-law Pam Dobbs. "She takes no bull," Dobbs said. "We really need that in today's society. Our society has gotten meaner, so I wasn't a bit surprised because she's very tough."

Believe it or not, this is the second time O'Keeffe has stopped a robber. She says a couple of years ago, she chased another man off with a whiskey bottle. She says she was going to beat him with it.

So far police have not arrested the two men in the most recent robbery attempt. O'Keeffe believes they were likely in their late teens.