Courtesy of The Illawarra Mercury
19/07/2008 11:14:00 AM
Jim Jenkins, 85, has only one regret in taking on a burly home intruder - that he couldn't get his hands on a cricket bat.

The shocked thief was also lucky not to cop a header from Australia's third oldest surviving Socceroo, from Corrimal.


"I shut the back door on him then went for his eyes," Mr Jenkins said.


"He was in my home and I was making sure he never came back."


Mr Jenkins and his wife, Valerie, 84, who joined the fray in an effort to help her husband, were bruised but unrepentant yesterday.


After suffering five break-ins at their Tarrawanna Rd home of 58 years, during which they have lost money and precious family heirlooms, the Wednesday encounter was the final straw.


Mr Jenkins, a retired MM Kembla employee, was preparing to leave for work as a steward at the Bulli Greyhound Racing Club when Mrs Jenkins noticed the bedroom drawers had been disturbed about 4.15pm.


A check of two rooms revealed money had been stolen from Mrs Jenkins' purse.


"Then I saw someone come out of the bathroom," Mr Jenkins said.


"I said to Val, excuse the expression, 'There's the bastard now!' "


"I'd shut the back door and he was trying to get out. I was fighting and struggling with him, going for his eyes. He was elbowing and I was fighting, trying to hang on to him."


Mrs Jenkins, concerned for her husband, went to his aid.


"I tried to get him off Jim and I was knocked to the ground in the struggle."


Mr Jenkins chased the intruder out the back door and it was there that he suffered a cut to the eye after hitting his head on a toppled plant stand.


"I got up and flew out the side gate and around the corner. A neighbour came from up the road and saw (the intruder) running across the park," Mr Jenkins said.


"I said, 'Let's chase him' and the neighbour said, 'By the looks of the blood coming out of you, Jim, you'd better get back inside."


The couple were taken to Bulli Hospital, where Mr Jenkins received four stitches and Mrs Jenkins was checked for back pain and bruising.


Mr Jenkins, who represented the Socceroos against Yugoslavia in 1949, said he kept fit by walking.


A 23-year-old asbestos remover was refused bail after being charged in connection with the robbery and assault of an elderly couple at Corrimal.


Steven John Lawer of William St, Tarrawanna, faced Wollongong Court charged with aggravated break and enter, among other stealing charges yesterday morning.


During the short hearing, Lawer, also known as Steven John Cafferty, shouted to the court: "I'm telling you, I didn't bash that old couple."


Lawer's representative Elizabeth Parkes said identification would be an issue in the trial and at the time of the attack the assailant was wearing a beanie. The case resumes on August 27.