Pensioner, 78, Kicked Burglar in the Groin - He Can Return in 10 Years

SJÖBO - A 78-year-old Swedish pensioner who came home to find two burglars in her isolated country house fought one of them off by kicking him in the groin. Now the 30-year-old Romanian, Gabriel Boscordea, has been sentenced to prison - and will be deported. But only for ten years. After that, he is welcome back in Sweden.

It happened on April 4 this year in Sjöbo, a rural municipality in Skåne in southern Sweden. As the woman opened her front door, she heard someone moving around upstairs and pressed the SOS button on her alarm.

"Shortly afterwards a man in a cap and a beard came towards me. He tried to take my handbag. I went into the living room, where he grabbed me and threw me down on the sofa," she told police.

Fought Back From the Sofa

Lying on the sofa, she refused to let go of the bag while Boscordea kept pulling at it.

"I kicked him in the groin while I was lying down. The kick must have really landed, because they left after that," she said.

The two men had already grabbed jewellery, trophies, perfume, cash, a jar of coins and a surveillance camera worth a combined 31,340 kronor (about $2,900). The woman was left with visible injuries to her thumbs.

According to the police investigation, she is still badly shaken. She suffers sleepless nights, has developed high blood pressure and has become isolated in her own home - afraid to leave in case someone breaks in again while she is away.

Straight On to the Next House

The burglars were apparently not satisfied with the haul. After fleeing the pensioner's home they broke into another house nearby and made off with cigars, watches, jewellery, cash, a wallet and a backpack worth around 12,400 kronor.

Ystad District Court has now convicted Boscordea of two counts of burglary, attempted aggravated theft and petty assault. He was sentenced to one year and eight months in prison, followed by deportation with a ten-year re-entry ban.

He must also pay 16,500 kronor in damages to the 78-year-old, 9,500 kronor to the couple in the second house and a combined 111,192 kronor to two insurance companies.

A Long Record in Two Countries

The ruling shows Boscordea is no stranger to Scandinavian courts. In Sweden he was jailed for six months for aggravated theft in December 2019.

He also appears in Denmark's criminal register. In June 2025 he was sentenced to one year and three months for illegal entry or residence in Denmark. Before that, he was convicted of nine thefts after trespassing in April 2024, theft after trespassing in May 2023 and three thefts in July 2022.

The court said his repeated reoffending in similar crimes, combined with the high penal value, left no option other than prison.