This cracked me up. Good on her.

A feisty 70-year-old woman who fought off four home intruders by whacking one with a signature Emeril Lagasse saucepan was upset when police took it as evidence after apprehending the suspects.

But now, Ellen Basinski, of Elyria, outside Cleveland, has lots of replacement Lagasse cookware coming her way, courtesy of the chef himself, and The Early Show Saturday Edition.

The feisty Basinski was on the phone with her husband, a local judge, when the would-be robbers entered the house.

“I was angry,” she says.

As one of them started rummaging through her purse, she grabbed her favorite trademark Lagasse saucepan and, as the famous chef himself likes to say, BAM!

“He told the police it almost knocked him out,” Basinski says. “I gave it a good whack. I figured, ‘You might get only one swing, lady, so make it good!’”

The four tried to defend themselves.

“It appears that one of the suspects picked up a Jack Daniels bottle and just threw it at her,” says Elyria Police Lt. Andy Eichenlaub.

“The thrower said, ‘I wanted to get out of there to stop her from beating up my friend,” Basinski points out.

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