Once A Marine

Always a Marine. A 72-year old Michigan man felt someone trying to pick his pocket. The former Marine - who also was a Golden Gloves boxer years ago - grabbed the hand trying to rob him and turned around and beat the tar out of the thief attached to it.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Bill Barnes says he was scratching off a losing $2 lottery ticket inside a gas station when he felt a hand slip into his front-left pants pocket, where he had $300 in cash.

He immediately grabbed the person's wrist with his left hand and started throwing punches with his right, landing six or seven blows before a store manager intervened.

"I guess he thought I was an easy mark," Barnes, 72, told The Grand Rapids Press for a story Tuesday.

He's anything but an easy mark: Barnes served in the Marines, was an accomplished Golden Gloves boxer and retired after 20 years as an iron worker.

Jesse Daniel Rae, the 27-year-old Newaygo County man accused of trying to pick Barnes' pocket, was arraigned Monday in Rockford District Court on one count of unarmed robbery, a 15-year felony.

I just love stories like this. Young thug gets huge surprise when "old geezer" turns out to have never accepted being either old or a geezer! Note to criminal masterminds: there is a lesson here.

• 

  By David L, Wednesday, 27 June , 2007 @ 4:13 am

  Lie Harvey Oswald and John Murtha are ex-Marines. Bill Barnes is a Marine.

• 

  By syn, Wednesday, 27 June , 2007 @ 7:58 am

  It appears that Mr. Barnes was able to escape the feminist castration that poor John Murtha willingly accomodated.

Other Links to this Post

1. USMC - 1: Punk - 0 | BitsBlog — Wednesday, 27 June , 2007 @ 4:38 am