PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. — A grandmother was beaten and grazed with a shotgun pellet during a home invasion Friday night, but she fought back and escaped the attack through her sheer will to survive.
"I was not going to be executed in my own home," said Cece Coffee.
Still bruised and bloody from the robbery, the Peachtree City woman invited Channel 2's Carl Willis into her home and detailed her brush with death.
"I think it was grannies gone wild," said Coffee. "I don't think they expected that amount of energy or strength from me because I would grab his wrist and block his blows."
Police said two men armed with a shotgun entered her home through an unlocked door Friday night.
Coffee said the men believed she had a safe in her home, possibly because she owns a business in town.
She said she decided to fight back when one of the men got rough.
"I was saying, 'You're not going to shoot me,'" she recalled. "'I have no safe. You need to leave now while you can.'"
Coffee said the men grew angrier as she resisted and dragged her into a bedroom.
That's when she said one of the men started ripping cords out of the wall to tie her up and began searching for a blanket to throw over her head.
"I think it threw him off that I wouldn't submit," she said. "I was not going to be tied up, and I was not going to have a blanket put over my head. I was not going to be executed that way."
Hearing the commotion, her friend Jeff Young entered from the den, distracting the robbers just for a moment.
That's when Coffee said she made a run for it.
She only got about 15 feet out of her home when she heard a shot.
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"You cannot imagine the ringing in your ears when a shotgun goes off 15 feet behind you," she said. "I was listening for the second gunshot. I thought he was going to come back in and kill Jeff."
"What's going through you mind when you hear that shot?" Willis asked Jeff Young.
"I'll tell you, I was laying face down at that point," he said. "When I heard the shot, I thought, 'Oh Lord, I'm next.'"
Coffee was only grazed.
She said she had to crawl through the dirt in a wooded area in her own backyard.
Somehow she was able to make it to a neighbor's house right on the other side of the woods.
Her neighbors called the police.
Coffee was treated and released from the hospital and returned to her home as soon as she was out.
The robbers are still out there, but Coffee told Willis she's not concerned about a return visit.
"I think they should be concerned if they come back, because as you can see I have my gun on my lap," she said.
Coffee said both men were in their 20s and wearing all black, with black bandannas covering their faces.
She said they left in a dark-colored pickup truck.
Anyone with information on this crime is asked to contact the Peachtree City Police Department at 770-631-2510.
WSBTV
