'It was either me or him and I won,' British retiree says after beating back mugger

LONDON -- An 84-year-old British man armed only with a pair of trousers beat back a mugger who tried to rob him at a laundry in the north of England.

Ron Croker was drying his clothes last week when the masked thug accosted him at the unstaffed Coin-Op Launderette in Maltby in South Yorkshire.

In the altercation caught on a surveillance camera, it appeared the two were struggling over the pair of jeans Croker was folding when the man attacked him.

But the would-be robber wanted his wallet and Croker wasn't giving it up without a fight.

Croker pushed the man out the door, and told him if he came back, “I'm gonna ... kill you,” adding an expletive for good measure.

As Croker returned to his chore at the dryer, the man took another run at him. Croker pushed back and swung the pants so the legs appeared to swat the thief, who finally retreated.

“I’ve had fights and scuffled when I was younger but when he was coming at me I thought I couldn’t back down," the former construction foreman told The Times of London. “There was no one there to help me. It was either me or him and I won.”

South Yorkshire Police said they caught a 42-year-old man and charged him with attempted robbery for the Jan. 7 incident. He is being held in custody.