Popeye had spinach, Latoyia Taylor had a can of peas.
That and a sock were all the Ohio woman needed to fend off an armed attacker and his apparent accomplice.
Taylor said a loud knocking brought her into the hallway of her Toledo apartment building Tuesday when a masked man started pistol-whipping her, 13abc.com reported.
"He grabbed me by my hair and just started hitting me, hitting me all in the back of the head and on the side," she told the station.
The 26-year-old said she then retaliated with her secret weapon: a can of peas stuffed inside a sock that she used to beat her assailant until the homemade weapon ripped and the culprit fled, 13abc.com reported.
"They attacked her for no apparent reason," witness Sharon Preston told the station.
While the man who beat Taylor got away, her boyfriend caught his apparent accomplice, Gregory Banks, and the two gave Banks a beating of his own, Preston said.
Banks, who faces an aggravated robbery charge, was at the hospital in critical condition, 13abc.com reported. Taylor also needed limited medical attention.
Toledo police still were searching for the other suspect in the case.
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