A robber learned the hard way that using a fake gun can backfire.
Tina Wettengel was being held with her husband, Bill, at gunpoint inside their Shadyside home Tuesday night and ready to hand over her wallet to the masked 74-year-old bandit.
"I'm thinking, 'I'm gonna do what he says,' " said Wettengel, 46. "'He wants cash. I'm getting cash. He can take all the cash he wants.'"
Then she got a good look at the intruder's gun. It looked green.
"I thought it was plastic," she said. "I thought, 'There's a real good chance this is a plastic gun.' "
After she mouthed the words, "It's fake," her husband punched the robber in the face and grabbed his gun. As the men scuffled, Tina Wettengel called 911.
"I wasn't quite sure what he was going to do. I was basically thinking, 'How do you overcome him?' " said Bill Wettengel, 59. "I don't think it took any courage. You see your wife and you're worried about her, and you react."
Within minutes, Pittsburgh police had arrested Charles Palmer, whose address was listed only as Pittsburgh. He was taken to the Allegheny County Jail, where he remains lodged on $10,000 bail.
Palmer was charged with robbery, burglary, giving false identification to law enforcement, loitering and prowling at night, simple assault, making terroristic threats, theft, receiving stolen property and false imprisonment, Pittsburgh Police Sgt. Kevin Gasiorowski said.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 23.
The incident began when Bill Wettengel took a couple bags of trash outside at about 9 p.m. A masked man was leaning against a fence near the alley by the Wettengels' Wallingford Street home.
Bill Wettengel soon was taken into his house by the robber, who forced him to the floor in an upstairs bedroom.
"It's frightening," Tina Wettengel said. "You know, you don't expect that to happen. ... I won't be taking the trash out, I know that."
Police were hesitant Wednesday to endorse the couple's actions.
"You have a right to defend your home," Gasiorowski said. "I would never recommend somebody confront a burglar ... because it's not worth your life just to save some property."
For his efforts, Bill Wettengel had a scrape on the forehead and a sore hand and shoulder.
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