A knock at the door, a girl with a lost dog flyer, and a perfect trap. That is how the night of April 29, 2017 began for 52-year-old Lisa Morelock in Kingsport, Tennessee. Behind the wall waited a masked man who grabbed her by the arm and announced the robbery.
At just 1.50 meters tall, Lisa had everything against her: the attacker was a head taller and twice her weight. But during the struggle, the mask slipped, and behind it appeared 34-year-old Joe Sotello, someone she had known for a long time as a family friend. At that point, fear was no longer an option. She grabbed the aluminum bat she kept behind the door and did not stop until she beat him out of her house, with the help of her daughter and a teenage friend.
Sotello was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary; police described Lisa’s reaction as self-defense. She summed it up with a phrase that has become her trademark: “No, not today”.
