Just as Elaine Stiehl, 78, was about to take her nap, she heard a noise coming from the front of her home, Coweta County Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Col. James Yarbrough told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Stiehl grabbed her pistol, loaded it and stepped into the hallway to find two men, who allegedly broke into her home, police said.

Yarbrough said the men, Thomas Allen Linder and John Michael O'Neal, saw the gun, ran out of the home and got into an SUV driven by Anne Renee Dearman. The trio sped off, but police later found them heading north on I-85, Yarbrough said. Two guns, one stolen from out of state, power tools and fur coats were found in the car.

Linder, 44, was charged with burglary and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. O'Neal, 32, was charged with burglary and theft by receiving stolen property. Dearman, 49, was charged with burglary.