Kung-Fu Granny doesn't take no guff

She may be in her twilight years, but that doesn't mean Larissa Olkhovsky can't punch someone's lights out. Olkhovsky, from Gouda, encountered a young man at her door who pushed his way into her home on Friday. She promptly pushed him right back and out of her house using her fists. "I just became so fantastically angry, just like I learned at self-defense class." She engaged in fisticuffs with the youth when he threatened her with a knife. The teenager was on the look-out for easy prey, but ended up knocking at the wrong door. "He found himself the most wrong old lady you could imagine", her family said proudly. Larissa Olkhovsky has proven the most metal granny on the block by earning herself some bruised knuckles on her right hand, a left hand full of stitches, a bruised shoulder, sore ribs and wounds on her head. "But I survived it, all that training at the gym and my self-defense classes have worked! I am very strong and muscular, you know. An example, they always say at the gym." A few years ago, an elderly woman was attacked in her neighborhood, close to the train tracks in Gouda. "The whole neighborhood was scared, me too. And that is an unpleasant feeling: being scared. I asked the gym: 'can you give me some self-defense classes'. More people wanted that: In no time around fifteen women signed up." Larissa works out around 6 hours a week. "I am always so careful, shut all the doors tight and never open the door after seven in the evening. But who expects a robber at three o'clock in the afternoon? Why he chose me, I don't know: I think he just picked on the first person who opened the door." When she unsuspectingly opened the door, the young man forced his way immediately into the cramped hallway. Larissa always has a can of pepper-spray ready, and a small hand saw standing ready. Tip from the self-defense instructor. "But I didn't have time to pick those up! The boy, an angel to behold, so handsome, immediately threatened me with a knife. I took the knife with my left hand, I didn't feel anything. I only thought: that thing must not come near my neck or my heart! I didn't let go for a second. With my right hand, I made a fist and I hit and hit, and threw all the dirty words at him that I knew! I just kept hitting, I was so angry! My rage saved me."

She beat the robber out of the door. "He was gone, and I had the knife. It was double lucky: with his DNA on it!" She sat on the couch for a while, to recover. Then she called her daughter. She was very shocked. "There was blood everywhere." She still isn't scared. "I have self-confidence, that's been proven now. The first night I did keep seeing that knife. Those few smacks: okay, but that knife... ah, but it's done now. I have experienced so many things in my life, and I've always come away a stronger person."