Fourteen-year-old Avery Cormier was asleep when woke up to the sound of an intruder.
She grabbed two knifes and confronted him.
That suspect later identified as Joseph Ridge, a 58-year-old career criminal dropped the items he was trying to steal and ran from the armed teen.
Avery had enough sense to capture video of his license plate as he drove off.
“I got him out of the house. I scared him. I took a video of his truck leaving so I have his license plate number,” the teen said in the chilling 911 call released by police.
Officers used that information to track Ridge down while driving over the Bourne Bridge and arrest him.
“I really didn’t realize that she had it in her to stay so calm under fire,” Avery’s mom Dianne Tautkus said. “Grabbed two kitchen steak knives and she went back and stood outside the door and started screaming at him ‘Get out of my house. Get out of my house. You don’t belong here.’”
Police said Ridge was already out on bail for an unrelated incident and has a record dating back to 1980, with more than 140 arraignments and a history of violence.
“A person who makes a decision to break into a home at 7:20 in the morning and terrorize a 14-year-old girl should not be out of jail,” Middleboro Police Chief Joseph Perkins told reporters, adding that the break-in appeared to be random.”
Ridge has been charged with aggravated breaking and entering, trespassing, attempted larceny and disorderly conduct.
How ‘bout them apples.