'Lady, quit stabbing me,' failed burglar cries

By Johnny Johnson

Published: April 23, 2008

BARTLESVILLE — Winnie Wiles is almost a century old and confined to a wheelchair, but she’s nobody’s victim.

And even though she’s not talking about what she says was one of the most horrific experiences in her life, word is quickly spreading about the 95-year-old woman who held off a drunken intruder for more than 90 minutes Saturday morning.

About 3 a.m. Saturday, Wiles was awakened to the sounds of someone trying to get in her house, Bartlesville Police Chief Tom Holland said.

Wiles grabbed a screwdriver and wheeled her 4-foot-11-inch frame over to the front door where a man was trying to get in the house, Holland said.

“She kept telling him to go away, that he had the wrong house and to leave her alone,” Holland said. “But he kept trying to get in.”

At some point, Holland said, the man broke the glass on the door and tried repeatedly to reach inside and unlock the door.

“And every time he did it, she stabbed him,” Holland said. “I don’t know how long this went on, but she got him once on the knuckle, and almost took his knuckle off. I mean, she was really fighting him.”

And every time it happened, Holland said the man would yell at Wiles and say “Lady, quit stabbing me.”

“This went on until he eventually passed out on the front porch,” Holland said.

When Wiles felt it was safe, she managed to get to a phone and call her niece.

“We got the call from the niece about 4:37 a.m.,” the police chief said. “Of course, we got officers over there right away. And they saw the window had been broken out and there was blood all over the door and on the floor, and there was a white male passed out at the base of the door, lying in a pool of blood.

“When they entered the house there was this little 95-year-old woman holding a bloody screw driver,” Holland said. “She was pretty relieved to see the uniformed officers.”

After determining the elderly woman was unharmed, they arrested Robert Newton Horsley, 46.

“This was a kind of wild deal,” Holland said. “We don’t get a whole lot of things like this here. It looks like he had maybe had too much to drink and thought maybe he was at his home or a girlfriend’s home or something.”

Contacted at her home Wednesday, Wiles declined to be interviewed, saying she didn’t want to relive the ordeal. Holland said he can’t blame her.

“Personally, I plan to get her a plaque and a case of screwdrivers,” Holland said. “She’s quite a brave little lady. She protected her property, and I’m real proud of her.”

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