96-Year-Old Woman From Marshfield Stops Armed Robbery

A 96-year-old woman stopped an armed robbery while she was alone at her Marshfield grocery store.

For 54 years, Margaretta Wolf has run her neighborhood grocery store at 713 East Doege Street in Marshfield. On Monday, the 96-year-old woman found herself face to face with an unwanted customer.

“He came in, and he had a mask on,” says Wolf. “I said, ‘Can I help you?’ ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘open up your till.’

She refused, and that’s when the would-be robber pulled out a knife. “You know these little jackknives that men carry in their pockets some times? He took it out, he kind of looked at me and he said, ‘Why don’t you walk to the back of the store?’ I said, ‘I am not walking any place.’”

She pointed to the store’s video camera. “I says, ‘Why don’t you get out? Get going!’ All at once, he just walked out.”

It’s only the second time in 54 years that Margaretta has had to deal with an armed robbery attempt. She stood up to the robber during that attempt as well.

“He run out of that door like a flash,” she says. “He didn’t walk out. He run.”

Despite her 96 years, Margaretta insists she wasn’t afraid.

“Maybe the angels were with me,” she says. “I wasn’t scared of him.”

Margaretta Wolf has run the small Marshfield store by herself since her husband Art passed away six years ago. She has no plans to retire. The would-be robber is still at large.