Three armed intruders versus a (former) Marine and his wife and his mom. That's not even close to a fair fight.Trooper Scott Spraggins opened his eyes to the African darkness, awakened by a strange scraping noise. It was different from the crickets and the whir of central air conditioning in the gated, elegant home where he and his family had been staying during their trip this month to Ghana.
He padded barefoot from the bedroom down a darkened hallway and opened a door that led to the living room. He saw three sets of eyes glaring at him. He also caught the outline of a shotgun in the hands of one of the intruders.
Spraggins wasn't about to gamble early that morning of Dec. 21, not when his wife, his mother, and his two daughters, Sophia, 5, and Sabrina, 15 months, were sleeping down the hall. "I knew I was going to be the last one standing," Spraggins, 35, said.
Yep.
As the intruder leveled the shotgun, Spraggins' survival instinct took over. He hurled his stocky 5-foot-10, 220-pound frame at the man and grabbed the barrel of the shotgun before the man could get off a shot.
Spraggins turned his attention to the other man, who was removing a revolver from his waistband. He ran into the intruder with all his force. The two other intruders began striking Spraggins in the head and body with pieces of furniture, splitting his head open.
Silly people, attempting to disable a Marine by bashing furniture over his head. Just annoys them.
Blood began spurting from his head, turning the white tile floor red, and making it slippery, and causing the men to fall as they fought.
Now his wife walks in, and these guys are in serious trouble.
That's the scene Angelica Spraggins said she walked into when she was awakened by banging furniture. "What are you doing? Leave us alone!" she began screaming when she saw the men in the living room.
Here comes his mom, and the bad guys are wishing he had just brought a flamethrower instead.
Spraggins' mother also ran out of her room. She pushed a bamboo chair at the intruders. It broke into pieces, and she began striking them with pieces of furniture. The intruders struck her in the head, she said, and even bit her on the arm. She grabbed a can of Lysol and sprayed it in the face of one of the intruders.
"Ya know, I'm beginning to think we should have picked a different house."
Scott Spraggins yelled to his wife to get his knife, the one he carries on the job to cut car crash victims out of their seat belts. She ran to the kitchen instead and handed him a steak knife.
"Honey, I am not going to let you ruin that good work knife I got you."
Spraggins jammed the knife through the eye of the man who had the pistol and then stabbed him in the abdomen, breaking the blade of the flimsy knife. The man ran, screaming in agony.
Yeah, I can see where that had to smart some.
Spraggins yelled to his wife to get his work knife in the bedroom.
"Lambchop, sweetie, would you be so kind as to get my other knife. That's the one, thank you."
| "Awfully sorry honey but I broke your good steak knife. Be a great gal and get my work knife "You broke my good steak knife? My aunt gave us that set for our wedding!" |
The third intruder ran away in the chaos.
Let's see, surprise attack on one Marine and two unarmed American women. Attack goes south, surviving bad guy runs for his life. Yep, it's Al Qaeda for sure. They have no fear of death except when they do.
Great title by the writer, by the way. If this article had run in the NYT, the title would have been "Marine Offends Local Sensitivities."