A Boynton Beach grandmother survived being confronted by three home intruders, thanks to a bit of quick thinking and a mighty thief deterrent.

It was 12:45 p.m. Tuesday afternoon when the woman says she first saw the intruder through her peephole after he rang the bell and banged on her front door. She said although he left, he came back to her front door a short time later. This time with his t-shirt over his head, putting on gloves and flanked by two other men.

The trio of home intruders were able to break into her front door quickly, but that gave the homeowner just enough time to get to her bedroom to retrieve her handgun.

“I decided that it’s either them or me, you know. I had to save my life. One of them came to the door here and opened it and when he did I had the gun in his face,” she said.

“I raised the gun and pointed it at his face,” she explained. “I called them bastards and I said I’m gonna kill you! All three of them started running for the door.”

The incident may have only lasted a few seconds, but it’s impact will felt for years to come.

“I think it was the worst day of my life. It was the most horrifying day of my life. I couldn’t believe it, I thought it was a bad nightmare,” she said.

“I think it’s wonderful. I think it’s the only thing that saved me. It was my Godsend. I don’t know what I would’ve done without it. I’ve never experienced anything like that before in my life. It was horrible, to have three strangers in your house and ransacking it. I was very angry. It’s like, how dare you do this! You know. This is our home,” the woman said.

She and her husband also intend to get a bigger, more powerful handgun to replace the .22 that she now has. She plans to go to a shooting range and practice to make sure she’s ready if it happens again.