Aug 20, 2008 3 min read

Fayette County’s latest heroine is an 85-year-old Lake Lynn resident who, upon returning from church Sunday, found a 17-year-old intruder in her house. Probably much to his surprise, Leda Smith, who suspected something was amiss when she saw a broken outer door, headed straight for her bedroom. Smith didn’t do so to gather up her valuables and flee. Nor did the octogenarian lock the door behind her in order to seek safe haven. Instead, she grabbed the .22-caliber revolver kept by her bed for just such an occasion, found the intruder hiding and ordered him to dial 911 so she could report the crime.

Within minutes, help was on the way. When it arrived, the teenager was laying face down and spread-eagled on the floor, per the gun-toting homeowner’s instructions. He was hauled away, to face a charge of attempted burglary and other offenses in Fayette County Juvenile Court.

“I said, ‘What are you doing in my house?'” said Smith of the confrontation, which fortunately didn’t end with her needing to pull the trigger. “He just kept saying he didn’t do it.”

That’s fairly typical of the criminal mind. Here’s a 17-year-old professing his innocence, even though he’s caught smack dab in somebody else’s house. Would he have us believe he mistook Smith’s humble abode for his own Point Marion domicile? Or that since it was a Sunday, he thought he was entering a house of worship, instead of the home of an 85-year-old woman?

Given the number of home invasions in the area – including a recent incident in German Township where gunfire was exchanged – it’s no surprise the Smith decided to bolster her own homeowner’s insurance policy with a rider of her own: a loaded pistol.

Her valiant action should disprove anyone’s theory that the elderly are weak and easy targets. It should give reason for pause to any criminal, of any age, who thinks it’s OK to break in someone’s house and help themselves to whatever.

People do have a right to protest their person, their family and their property, and anyone who decides to test that theory should be fully aware that they run the risk of getting some hot lead in their backside. Or someplace more potentially deadly.

It’s a known fact that police can’t be everywhere all the time. That’s why the right to keep and bear arms is vital. But in situations like Smith’s, a nonviolent and relatively happy ending cannot be guaranteed. What if the intruder also had a gun? What if Smith didn’t?

The bottom line is that would-be intruders should take notice that not everyone is going to be easy pickings. Smith stood up for her own rights, like more people should.