Elderly Couple Fights Off Accused Armed Mugger In Midtown

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- An elderly couple, who have been married for nearly 60 years, worked together to fight off an accused robber in Midtown on Tuesday night.

Lee Margolin and her husband Herbert, 89, were walking down East 49th Street near Third Avenue when a man approached them and demanded cash, police said.

"He was after my purse and he wasn't giving up," Lee said. "I just pushed him away and he didn't like that."

The man, later identified as Efrian Hernandez, 39, allegedly brandished a sharpened metal fork. That's when Herbert sprang into action.

"The action was automatic, it's nothing that you had to think about. You just went and did what you had to do to protect her," he told CBS 2's Alice Gainer.

Lee said she waited until the time was right and joined the fray.

"They struggled to the point where they were wrestling on the ground," she said. "I just kept punching him and he dropped the weapon."

The suspect fled the scene, but was apprehended at 48th Street and Park Avenue and was charged with assault and robbery, police said.

Lee and Herbert have since returned to central New York, where they reflected on the Midtown melee.

"I did the best I could and it worked out, thank God," Herbert said.

Herbert came out of the scuffle with a few bumps and bruises, Lee kept her purse.

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