Luckily, I already had a great deal of respect for Marines, elderly or not, so I didn’t need this lesson.  But it’s too late for a mugger in Costa Rica who made the very poor decision to try to rob a tour bus full of elderly tourists on Wednesday.  The twelve tourists were on an outing from a Carnival cruise ship when their bus was held up by three men, at least one of whom had a gun.  This is from the Carnival Cruise Lines official statement:

According to witnesses . . . the group of guests were approached by three assailants, one of whom was armed.  The victims struggled with the armed perpetrator, and were able to disarm him.  During this process, the gunman’s two accomplices fled the scene.  In the course of disarming and restraining the assailant, he died from apparent asphyxiation.

But according to reports today, the "apparent asphyxiation" resulted from the fact that a 70-year-old former Marine somehow got the jump on the 20-year-old mugger, who was the one with the gun, and killed him with his bare hands.  One report said that the man’s neck was broken.  In another report it was the man’s clavicle.  Either way, he’s dead, and I bet his accomplices still haven’t stopped running.

After the battle, the tourists tried to get the mugger medical attention, putting him on their bus and driving him to the local Red Cross, where he was declared dead.  The authorities questioned the tourists and then released them, saying that they had the right to defend themselves after being held up.  The ship left the port of Limon, only slightly delayed.  Carnival says that the group has opted to continue with their vacation plans, which are unlikely to be troubled again by muggers, would be my guess.

Link: AP via SFGate.com