Pain in the neck. (Exercising the Right).

At around 10 p.m. on March 20th, Bobby Drum, 68, and wife Dorothy, 64, were at home in Dentsville, South Carolina, when someone attempted to break in through a front screen door.

While Mr. Drum rushed to a back room to retrieve his 9 mm handgun, the would-be burglar ordered Mrs. Drum to stay where she was or he would kill her. Now armed, Mr. Drum returned and fired a single shot at the intruder, who promptly fled.

About 20 minutes later, paramedics responded to a call from an apartment about half-a-mile from the Drum residence. The caller, suffering from a neck wound, claimed that he had been shot by two men who had approached him while he was walking to a friend's house. However, when he failed to provide more specific information about the alleged shooting investigators concluded that he was instead the one who had broken into the Drums' home.

Jack Maurice Austin, 18, was arrested and charged with first-degree burglary. He was treated for the non-life threatening neck wound at a local hospital, then taken to jail.

A spokesman for the sheriff's office told reporters that no charges would be filed against Mr. Drum, who had acted in justifiable self-defense.