N.Y. Burglar Retreats After Woman Wrenches Laptop Away From Him

Attention, New York criminals: Do not mess with Tiffany Chang.Chang, a 27-year-old Williamsburg resident, interrupted a burglar as he was trying to steal belongings from her room Wednesday afternoon.Chang spotted the black-clad man halfway out her fire escape holding her laptop and several pieces of jewelry.“I asked him, ‘Are you f–king kidding me?’” Chang told The New York Post. “He kind of smiled and was like, ‘Yeah,’ I guess, and then he kind of froze.”https://youtu.be/4xPmwDWyznQChang sized up the threat of her intruder to see if he was armed and/or dangerous, and decided it was safe to fight back.“We fought for a minute, and then finally I wrestled my laptop back from him,” she said. "I don't think he expected me to reach forward, because when I grabbed it, his hands let loose for a second," she told CBS New York.Shortly thereafter, her roommate, Russell Pinke, entered the room bearing a metal bar. Their unwanted guest cut his losses and fled, taking with him Chang's jewelry box as well as her cellphone.Though bummed at the loss of her stuff, Chang says the incident "empowered" her.“I have been running around the house saying, ‘I protected you!’ ” she told The Post while pointing at Pinke. “I fought off a robber!”Chang said this was the third time in five years she's been burgled at that apartment. I know moving is an expensive pain in the wazoo, but maybe it's time to find a new place? Having had my own fire-escape-related brush with crime, I don't think I'd have stuck around past the second invasion.