The sign on her door reportedly said, "Save the drama for your mama."
But when that message didn't appear to get across to the man masturbating on her doorstep, the 68-year-old Houston woman warned she would have to go get her pistol.
The woman, identified only as "Granny Jean" in local news, was taking out her trash about 5:15 Tuesday evening when the man riding his bicycle while masturbating approached her, according to Houston Police Lt. Larry Crowson.
"She was alarmed by this," Crowson told reporters at the scene, and the woman started back toward her house.
The man followed her - still masturbating.
"Some guy pulled off his pants and pulled his pants open, playing with his thing," she told KTRK, the local ABC affiliate, "and he ran up in my yard, and I told him to get away from my door, or I will shoot him."
He didn't stop coming, Crowson said. And meanwhile, the woman's 14-year-old granddaughter was inside.
So she did what she promised and ran to grab her gun.
She said the man kept approaching, "reaching for my door," she told KTRK, "and he wouldn't stop. So, I shot him through the door."
Crowson said she struck the man with a single shot to the chest, near his shoulder.
The man then stumbled back through her front yard, wobbled onto his bicycle and attempted to pedal away, Crowson said. Then he collapsed on the sidewalk, where paramedics ultimately rushed him to the hospital.
He is expected to survive his injuries, Crowson said.
Crowson said the Harris County District Attorney's Office is reviewing the case and it is not clear whether the woman will face any charges. Texas is a stand-your-ground state.
Jean's neighbors told reporters they would have done the same thing in her shoes.
"Ain't no telling what else he was gonna do," one woman said. "You don't know what he got. She was protecting her property."
As for the unidentified man, Crowson said the police are familiar with him. He was arrested a couple weeks ago while running down the street naked, he said.
"I don't bother nobody," the woman told KTRK. "I don't get in nobody's business. It's just me and him, and like I keep saying, I warned him."
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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