DAUGHTER SAVES HER MOTHER

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis, Mo., 02/07/06

After an 87-year-old woman's home was burglarized, her daughter gave her
a .38-caliber handgun so she'd be prepared if it happened again.

That gesture may have saved the senior citizen's life.
According to the police, early one morning, the woman awoke
to the sound of a man breaking into her home.

Calling for help wasn't an option; he had cut her phone wires.
After the man removed the security bars from the woman's porch
and attempted to access the front door, she fired a round from her pistol.

The would-be intruder lay dead on the woman's porch for nearly four
hours before her daughter showed up for breakfast. "She couldn't call for help
and was afraid to go outside," said a state policeman.
Authorities are investigating whether the man, a career criminal,
was also responsible for the first burglary.