Updated

An 83-year-old Houston woman has foiled a would-be robber by tossing a pot of boiling water on him.

Lillie McClendon says she noticed things out of place and a side window open at her home Sunday when a man confronted her, tried choking her and demanded money.

McClendon, who's lived in her home more than 50 years, tells Houston television station KTRK she wasn't going to surrender. She fought off the intruder by grabbing a stick and tried to hit him.

She says at one point she told the man he should be ashamed of himself and asked: "What kind of momma you got that raised you up like this?"

Then she got hold of a pot of boiling water from the stove and doused him.

He fled.