A Pennsylvania woman is crediting the handgun she keeps on the nightstand by her bed for giving her the upper hand when an intruder startled her awake early Saturday morning.

As she revealed in an interview with KYW, 70-year-old Maxine Thompson described hearing her back window crash as someone broke in her Philadelphia home at around 4:30 a.m.

“Next thing I know I could tell he was inside my house and he was running up the steps,” she said.

Thompson said she did not hesitate to grab the gun her mother passed down to her and that she has kept beside her bed for such an occasion.

“I snatched my gun and I started shooting at him and he ran down the steps and I ran down the steps behind him and started shooting some more and he jumped out that window back the way he came in,” she said.

Her home is reportedly worse for wear with several bullet holes and some blood from the wound to the suspect’s arm when one of the great-grandmother’s rounds made contact with her target.

Following the encounter, the suspect himself called 911 to report that he had been shot.

As Fox News reported, he was subsequently arrested and transported to an area hospital where he was initially listed in stable condition with a gunshot wound to his arm.

The homeowner, whose son is a police officer, said the burglar picked the wrong house this weekend.

“They better think twice,” she warned other would-be intruders. “Especially if she a Thompson.

[Featured image: Maxine Thompson/KYW video screenshot]