Elderly Chicago Woman Is the New Bernie Goetz

Margaret Matthews, a 68 year-old Chicago woman, was reportedly being "terrorized" by a group of middle school vandals in her neighborhood. So when one of them broke her window, she shot him. He's 12. She's already a folk hero.

Chicago's CBS 2 reports that neighbors are already defending Matthews' actions in response to the "little bad boy" who they say had been "breaking windows, breaking items on Matthews' shed house, and setting her garbage on fire." Finally, she snapped:

Neighbors say when the boy threw the bricks and broke Matthews' windows, she simply hit the breaking point.

She called police and they came, but after officers left, the boy came back. That was when Matthews responded with gunfire.

The 12 year-old boy she shot in the arm is out of the hospital, and he's being charged with a misdemeanor; Matthews herself (who's reportedly "a widow, works two jobs and lived in the same home for nearly 30 years") is charged with nothing.

Get a BB gun, lady.

[Stock photo which is not of Margaret Matthews: Shutterstock]