MAKING HER POINT: Brave (or slightly cuckoo) Anna Graham yesterday shows a reporter how a mugger threatened to shoot her — until she told him he didn’t have the “b–ls” — and he ran away. (
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Plucky Soho robbery victim Anna Graham yesterday demonstrated how she faced a gun-wielding mugger and coolly told him he didn’t have the b–ls to shoot — but she warned others not to do the same thing.
“If anybody would ask me what should we do in your place, if you have a bag, give it up. If you have anything to give, give it. And pray. Because it’s not worth a human life,” the 54-year-old woman said yesterday.
“And run like hell if you can.”
The feisty Russian native became a hero to some when she stood up to a weak-kneed punk and his accomplice when they tried to rob her outside her Soho home at about 1 a.m. on July 3. As one thug put a gun to her head, she boldly told him didn’t have the “b–ls” to shoot her.
“When the gun went against my forehead, I understood it’s not a joke. He said, ‘I’ll shoot you, bitch.’ And I went, ‘Ahh, shoot.’ That’s the first thing that came out,” she said.
“I was in shock. I had no idea exactly what was happening. A million things were going through my mind. And so that’s what I said. He lowered the gun against my chest and he [said], ‘I will shoot you.’ ”
The plucky, 5-foot-4 Graham said she then stared the much-taller crook right in the eye.
“I said to shoot someone you really have to have b–ls. And it doesn’t look like you have any. Once I said that I went, ‘S–t, Anna!’”
The thug’s accomplice, who was rifling through her friend’s car, shouted “Shoot, shoot, shoot!” she said.
The crooks finally fled after Graham’s female friends came outside and confronted them.
In hindsight, she admitted she didn’t know what she was thinking with her Charles Bronson-like bravado.
“If you ask me why I said that, or what would I do and how did it happen, I really have no idea,” said Graham, whose husband is renowned 88-year-old Russian sculptor Ernst Neizvestny.
She said her tough upbringing in the former Soviet Union might have steeled her for the frightening encounter.
Now, she’s just glad she’s alive.
“I’m really happy I’m alive because I could have been right there,” she said, pointing to the ground.
Yesterday, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly hailed her grit but said sassing a gunman is not recommended.
“It might not be the smartest thing to do, to say that to someone that’s holding a gun to your head, but obviously, you have to admire her gumption and guts,” Kelly said. “It worked for her, and I think everyone needs to assess their own situation. So, hats off to her, but again, it’s not something I would advise the people in general to do.”