If you’re ever so hard up that you figure your only option is to break into someone’s home and steal their stuff, just remember — you don’t want to mess with Jill Stucker. The 64-year-old from Lake City, Florida knows how to handle a hairy situation, not to mention her gun. “Police said Jill Stucker was watching TV about 9:20 p.m. at her home in the 800 block of Northeast Lake Drive when 26-year-old Milton Barber Jr. broke in through the bedroom window.” Is it ageist/sexist to say most 64-year-old women wouldn’t have had a clue what to do in the same situation? Yes, yes it is. But Ms. Stucker handled herself like a real operator . . .
First, she got her gun. Second, as news4jax.com reports, she made for the back door, probably figuring the home invader would take what he wanted and skedaddle. But he skedidn’t.
As she tried to flee her home, Barber began chasing her out of the house, police said. They said Stucker began screaming for help as heard by her neighbors, and as she began running toward the road, she stopped, saw the intruder still chasing her and fired one shot at him, striking him once in the chest, police said.
One shot, in the dark with adrenaline flowing like champagne in the Giants’ locker room last night. And she plugs him center mass. Not bad. Not bad at all.
The hole in his thorax made Barber change his trajectory.
Barber fled out the backyard over a wooden fence, dropping blood on the fence and fled down the sidewalk, leaving a blood trail, police said. They said Barber collapsed on the doorstep of the home of a man who was applying pressure to the gunshot wound when officers arrived.
But why would he take off after the homeowner when he could have had anything in her house? Here’s a clue:
Barber is a convicted felon and a registered sexual offender. He was also placed on probation by the state of Florida on July 11 for previous charges of burglary, battery and sexual assault until July 2019.
We don’t know Ms. Stucker, but we’d like to shake her hand.