Never bring a knife to a gunfight is the old saying. It’s an older code, but it checks out. Throwing lead at speeds faster than sound from a distance will trump a blade almost every time.

And that’s exactly what one Ocala, Florida, woman did when her home was being burgled by 32-year-old Erick Russell Miller, who was busy trying to take the woman’s knives.

According to the Miami Herald, the woman grabbed her gun and caught Miller in the act of trying to steal her knives which were apparently discovered to be scattered throughout the home according to police. Miller then fled through the front door.

Police arrived, and while questioning victims got a tip as to Miller’s whereabouts. The story then got slightly odd:

While deputies were interviewing the victims, neighbors came into contact with a “suspicious person” nearby. Deputies flagged down Miller, who had two knives from the house in his possession. He admitted that he broke into the home because “he thought people were chasing him,” the report said.

When asked why there were coins on the patio, the 31-year-old Florida man said he removed the change from his pockets because of the noise it made.

Miller told officers that once he was inside, he “drank a bottle of water, gathered weapons to protect himself with and removed all the night lights from the power outlets in order to hide from ‘the people who were chasing him.’ “

Whether Miller was simply making excuses or he was suffering from a sense of paranoia doesn’t matter. The point is that we don’t know what Miller’s next move would have been, be it just taking the knives and going, or doing something with them that would have resulted in the worst day of this woman’s life.

Either way, the presence of her gun caused the situation to de-escalate what could have been a horrible situation immediately.

It’s no wonder that women are the fastest growing group getting their concealed carry licenses.