The 18-year-old allegedly fled with a bag full of possessions before the dog squad tracked him down.
Stella was asleep next to her husband in their Mandurah home, about an hour south of Perth, when someone broke in just before midnight yesterday.
“He kept saying, ‘I’m going to kill ya, I’m going to kill ya, I want your jewellery’,” she claimed.
“I said, ‘No you’re not having it’ and I backed off into the bedroom and he followed me and he punched me.”
Bruised and bleeding, the 85-year-old fought back.
“I got the long-handled brush and he was stood in here and I pushed it into him and he must have thought, ‘Oh I better get out of here’,” she said.
He ran but police were in hot pursuit, allegedly finding him under a ute.
The man was arrested just after midnight only a few houses down from where he was accused of punching Stella.
About five hours earlier, the teen allegedly broke into a caravan at the back of Stella’s home, ransacking the inside before running off until he’d later return.
“It is a violation,” she said, pledging to install cameras and other security measures.
“We’ve been here since 1995 – this is the first thing that has ever happened.”
Officers also seized a backpack containing ammunition.
The Pinjarra man was charged with burglary, stealing, aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, possessing a firearm without a licence and possessing stolen property.
He faced Mandurah Magistrates Court this morning and was remanded in custody until Tuesday.