SPANAWAY, Wash. — A 78-year-old grandmother in Washington state held off a suspected burglar with a shotgun until deputies with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department arrested him Sunday night.

The woman, Sandy, of Spanaway, said she knew something was wrong when her dog, Booboo, starting barking nonstop. The next thing she knew, she was standing face to face with a man trying to break into her home.

“I opened my door, and standing 2 feet from me was a man,” Sandy told KIRO-TV. “And we looked at each other for a few minutes, and he turned and started to leave.”

But Sandy had other plans.

“I said, ‘Oh, no you don’t. You stay right there,’ and I reached over and got my shotgun, and I cocked it,” Sandy told KIRO.

Sandy said she told the man to go outside and sit on the steps, the television station reported. When he sat down, she stood there with the shotgun to his head and waited for the police to come.

Sandy said her neighborhood has been plagued by car prowlers lately, and she said she was fed up.

“I was totally calm, really and truly,” Sandy told KIRO. “I thought ‘This is amazing!’”

The woman said she told the man she had grandchildren his age and asked why he broke in.

“He said, ‘Well, you know, I was really hoping to get laid.’ That really perked my ears up,” Sandy told KIRO.

Cox Media Group