When 78-year old John Ranson went into his garage early on Wednesday morning the first thing he saw was a pair of feet behind the door.
The next thing he saw was a gun. Armed only with his cup of tea, Mr Ranson found himself faced by three intruders, all wearing balaclavas.
Riding on instinct, Mr Ranson, a former England international rugby player, slammed the door into one of the intruders, threw his hot tea at the second, and aimed his empty mug at the third, hearing it smash against the wall behind him.
“I thought attack was the best form of defence,” he says, walking around the now empty garage a day later, wryly pointing out a large wooden cane and a garden axe leaning against the wall. “At the time, the only weapons I had were my tea and my voice.”
Today, his doors and windows are locked and he is more careful about security around the home. But his main concern is wanting to see the intruders caught and removed from the streets.
“The police have responded very well,” he says. “We can tell they’re putting the effort in. This is such a nice country, and we mix so well with the people of Siġġiewi; it would be terrible if something like this were to happen to someone else.”
