Gunshots scare off intruder

Residents of southern Shelbyville from Brookhaven subdivision to the city limits are being warned by police to be on alert after a woman fended off an intruder in her home early Friday.

Several reports have been received of a "peeping Tom" in the area over the past few weeks, Detective Sgt. Brian Crews said.

But the Friday incident, in which the resident fired two shots at the man, is the first reported in which a home was actually entered.

The woman told police she was awakened shortly after 1 a.m. by a noise in the home and heard someone in the kitchen. The intruder took a long knife from a drawer, police were told by the victim, who called a neighbor and then police.

"She announced that she was calling the police and that she had a gun," Officer Chris Vest said. "She went to the left side of her bed and placed her body next to the floor."

The victim said she saw the man standing in the doorway of her bedroom and fired twice with a small caliber weapon, missing the suspect. He fled, striking a table and knocking its contents into the floor, and dropped the woman's driver's license and bank card on the front porch. The actions indicate the man man may have not been familiar with the home's interior, Crews said.

Officers said the woman's vehicle, which had been left unlocked in the home's garage, had been ransacked with the license removed from her wallet and a bank card taken from the console.

Crews said valuable items in the vehicle including a GPS unit had been left untouched.

The suspect was described by the victim as wearing a ball cap with lights on its bill and a black hoodie.