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Robber Breaks Stockton Woman's Neck During Home Invasion

STOCKTON (CBS13) — A robber who ransacked a couple's home, leaving a 67-year-old woman in the hospital with a broken neck, is still on the loose tonight.

James Hazlitt isn't sleeping well after a robber broke into his home through the back door and attacked him and his wife, Lorris, before searching for gold chains.

"All he could do was yell, 'Where's your gold? Where's your gold?'" James said. :He just started hitting us."

Lorris got the worst of it.

"She was standing there and he hit her once, and then when she turned around, he hit her again," James said. "He broke her neck."

Then the robber turned his attention to James, who couldn't fight back.

"Once he hit me, I just go down," he said. "The only thing he did to me was rearrange my teeth."

But James wasn't worried about himself. He was concerned for Lorris.

"I feel more for my wife. I wished it had happened to me, not my wife."

After the robber realized the couple didn't have gold, he stole their cash and Lorris' purse.

"We feel fortunate that he didn't shoot us," he said.

The couple's been married for 35 years and are both retired security guards. No matter how hard they tried to secure their property, this brutal crime still happened to them.

Despite being beaten and robbed in their own home, they're not moving and refuse to be intimidated.

"I can't live in fear all of my life because of one person," James said.

Lorris is expected to make a full recovery.

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