A Dunn, North Carolina, homeowner says she grabbed a gun and shot it for the first time Tuesday when an alleged intruder tried to steal things from her home, including her dog.

The 29-year-old woman awoke to sounds of the alleged intruder “stealing her belongings,” WHIO 7 reported.

“[He even] attempted to take her pet dog,” Harnett County Sheriff Wayne Coats said, according to WNCN.

The woman told the alleged intruder to leave but he refused her commands. “All I did was turn around and grab the gun. I was fumbling with it. It’s my first time using it,” she said, WRAL noted.

She then opened fire on the alleged intruder.

The woman explained, “I just lifted it up, and I started shooting at him, wherever he was moving to, I just shot him out of the house.”

When Harnett County Sheriff’s deputies arrived they found the alleged intruder , identified as 20-year-old Malihk Giles of Oak Lane in Johnston County, about 200 yards from the woman’s home, suffering from gunshot wounds.

He was arrested and charged “with first-degree burglary and possession of stolen property.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. AWR Hawkins holds a PhD in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.