83-Year-Old Woman Fends Off Burglar In Front Of Dying Husband

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - An elderly woman survived after struggling with a burglar in front of her husband, who was on his deathbed.

In the end, 83-year-old Suzy Alummuttil was able to fend him off, but the intruder stole the family pickup.

Startled and scared, Suzy found herself face-to-face with the stranger in her Fort Worth home on December 10. She was lying next to her husband John, who had just returned from hospice care, in a hospital bed in her living room.

"He saw (the intruder,) but he could not talk," she said.

Suzy cried as she recounted how her dying husband watched as the man ransacked their home.

Surveillance video shows the suspect walking onto the porch and opening their front door, which had been left open for the hospice nurse they were expecting.

The man searched the house until Suzy tried to called 911 and her son for help. Suzy said he walked over to her and tried to take the phone away, but she refused.

The intruder left with keys to the family's Chevy Silverado.

The suspect had left in the stolen truck by the time Suzy and John's son, Saji, arrived at the house, panicked after getting a call from his mother as she was wrestling with the burglar.

"All I could hear was some sort of a struggle... is what I can best explain it as," he said.

Although the couple was scared, they were not physically harmed. The day after the robbery, husband and father, John Alummuttil, died.

"The break in is also one of his last memories, assuming that he was not really cognizant," said Saji. "We had a hard week last week."

The family is hoping someone will see the video and recognize the burglar. Saji says he installed the doorbell camera two days before the burglary to keep an eye on his elderly parents.