He followed them home, to his regret.

It was 11 p.m. on October 16 and Beth Greer, 73, was in the process of retrieving a handgun from her car after being threatened by a masked, armed gunman in the garage of her Saucier, Mississippi, home. The masked robber had momentarily left her alone; Mrs. Greer had screamed for her husband when confronted, and the gunman had gone into the house to deal with Mr. Greer first. She then heard a gunshot come from the house. Fearing that her husband had just been killed, she readied the gun she had just retrieved. As soon as the intruder returned for her, she blazed away.

Mrs. Greer related the details to WLOX channel 13: "I heard a shot go off and, of course, I just knew he had killed Tommy. In an instant, he stepped back into the garage. One step in the garage, still with his gun pointed at me, and I just opened fire on him. I just shot, shot, shot, shot." The robber fled and later died at a hospital. But the robber hadn't killed Beth's husband, Tommy. It turned out that her husband had scuffled with the man and had been wounded in the head, but he was not seriously injured.

The robber was Bobby Hardy, a regular customer at the Greers' store. He had a history of violence and robbery.

The Greers asked the police to release their names to the media so that robbers would know that honest Americans cannot be intimidated. Beth said that she once wondered if she could shoot a bad guy. Now, she says, "I won't ever, ever hesitate to pull a gun and shoot somebody if they come at me."