She Was Getting Mauled by a Dog. He Grabbed a Toy Soldier

88-year-old Leonard Miller saves young neighbor in Ohio with plastic Christmas decoration
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 26, 2019 11:26 AM CST
Elderly Vet Saves Girl From Pit Bull With Christmas Decoration
This guy's got some fight in him.   (Amazon)

A young girl in Ohio is alive thanks to a quick-thinking man next door and a plastic Christmas decoration. Leonard Miller says he was in his Perry Township home Sunday when his 13-year-old neighbor started banging on his door, yelling that her 10-year-old sister was being attacked by a pit bull in their home, per WOIO. The 88-year-old ran to the girls' home, but on his way in, he grabbed a 3-foot-tall plastic toy soldier standing sentinel in their yard. Once inside, he saw the dog mauling the girl's upper left arm. "It had her and was just shaking her and growling, and I hit the dog, I don't know how many times, but it didn't faze that dog," Miller says. Then, he adds, he started clobbering the dog on the back with the toy soldier, and it finally let the little girl go.

The girls ran out, with Miller slowly backing up out of the house himself. He was able to close the door behind him without the dog getting out and called for cops and an ambulance. Miller, who'd served as a US Army medic in the Korean War, tells the Massillon Independent that he works out regularly using a treadmill and weights. "My doctor tells me, 'You're in better shape than most 50-year-olds," he says. The 10-year-old suffered serious injuries to her arm, though Miller says his neighbors told him her arm was able to be saved; her condition is unknown. A Stark County Sheriff's Office rep says the owner of the pit bull, a man said to be living in the home, surrendered the dog to authorities. As for Miller, he's just glad he could help. "I don't like to be called a hero," he tells WOIO. (You don't want to mess with this 82-year-old female bodybuilder, either.)

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