Greta Hess was a neighbor to the Pruitt family. While she had a cranky and unfriendly reputation, she warmed up to the Pruitts after their son Alex saved her life from a group of spies.
Biography[]
Mrs. Hess was returning home to Chicago from a holiday in San Francisco. Among the luggage she carried was a shopping bag from a Parisian bakery filled with packages of the brand's best-selling product of sourdough bread loaves.[1]
At the security check in San Francisco International Airport, an extra screening procedure caused her Parisian bag to mix up with an identical Parisian bag owned by a quartet of criminals led by Petr Beaupre; the other bag contained a remote-controlled toy car concealing a highly-classified US$10 million missile-cloaking computer chip which the quartet had stolen for a North Korean terrorist organization. As the two took their Parisian bags, only the sole female and second-in-command of the quartet Alice Ribbons, realized the mistake.[1]
After she returned home, she gave the car to Alex as a reward for shoveling snow from her driveway, but lectured him for scratching in front of a lady as well as chiding him for not dealing with the snow promptly, as Alex had apparently agreed to do, but not done.[1]
The four criminals, having tracked the chip to Chicago and found from the cab man that it was somewhere on Washington Street, decided to search every home in the neighborhood to find it. At their second attempted break in at Mrs. Hess' home, they found the bag, but not the car. After Alex reported the burglary, her door was broken down by the police, but Beaupre managed to evade capture, making it appear to be a false alarm. The criminals eventually found out that Alex had the chip, and started chasing after him.[1]
In order to keep Mrs. Hess from interfering with their plans, Alice and Beaupre tricked Mrs. Hess, telling her that they were a couple that had just moved into the neighborhood, and were waiting for a package to be delivered to their house. They told her that the driver got confused, took the package to Mrs. Hess' house, and left it in her garage when nobody answered the door. Beaupre left, but Alice and Mrs. Hess went into the garage. While Mrs. Hess was looking for the package, Alice closed the garage door. Mrs. Hess, confused and alarmed, turned around and asks her why she did that. Alice said, "I left my heart in San Francisco" and then tied Mrs. Hess to a chair with white tape, and put some tape over her mouth. While she tied her up, Alice said that Mrs. Hess should have made sure she had the right package at the airport and she hoped that Mrs. Hess was not fond of Alex. After Mrs. Hess tried to respond through her gag, Alice kissed her on the forehead and left her in the garage with the back door open so she would freeze.[1]
Later on, after Alex escaped from the criminals, he ran into Mrs Hess' garage and found her taped to the chair and unconscious. He removed the tape from her mouth as she woke and told her "You're ok. I'm here now." He then put his jacket on her to keep her warm and untied her. After a brief confrontation with Beaupre, he helped her get into her house and offered to make her a warm bowl of soup. Mrs. Hess admitted that Alex was a very sweet young man and that she never took any time to get to know him.[1]
When Alex asked her if she had gotten the chicken pox once, Mrs. Hess thought for a bit, and then answered, "I had the chicken pox... when Herbert Hoover was in the White House", and then smiled along with Alex, while Agent Stuckey and others laughed. When Stan's parrot and Alex's rat Doris appeared, playing with the toy car Mrs. Hess had given him, Mrs. Hess laughed in amusement, along with Molly and Stan.[1]
Trivia[]
- She plays a sort of similar role to that of Old Man Marley and the Pigeon Lady. However, the difference is that she is actually antagonistic towards Alex Pruitt, whereas the previous two only unintentionally scared Kevin McCallister until he got to know what they were really like.
- Also, unlike the previous two characters, she doesn't end up saving Alex's life; instead, Alex saves her life after she is put in a bad situation and rendered physically helpless by the criminals.
- Her first name is never mentioned.
- The name, however, is clearly revealed as Greta when the antagonists intercept Karen's call, wherein it shows the residents of Washington Street's phone numbers.
- She is probably widowed, which could be the reason of her living by herself and the "Mrs." title.
- This is possibly the reason why she is so unhappy and grouchy, though she becomes a much more friendly person after Alex befriends her and saves her life.
- Mrs. Hess does mention once that she is retired.
- Mrs. Hess drives a 1984 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz.
- Mrs. Hess is a smoker who enjoys Long Island Iced Teas.
- Since Mrs. Hess had the chicken pox during Herbert Hoover's presidency, she would be 75 years old or older. This is further evidenced when Stan Pruitt refers to her as "the evil octogenarian". This would put her at approximately 80-89 years old.