Homeowner Shoots Intruder As Chihuahua Acts As Guard Dog

A "beware of dog" sign posted on a tree near the driveway probably should have been the intruders' first warning to stay away. Now, a Calumet Township man says he believes he shot and wounded an armed intruder who attempted to break into his house late Tuesday. Homeowner Steve Allen credited his Chihuahua, Teco, with alerting him after two men forced their way into the home. "That is the best alarm I could actually say you could get right there, that little Chihuahua," Allen told the Chicago Tribune. He said he and his fiancee were watching "The Voice" when their front light went out and they heard the doorknob jiggling, according to Allen. The couple's two small dogs, he said, went nuts. Allen said someone then kicked in his back door and came through the back room, then the kitchen, before entering the living room where he and his fiancee sat. Allen said he reached under a pillow on the sofa where he keeps his .380 semiautomatic handgun "all the time" and fired at the intruder. He claims the suspect was raising a shotgun, about to put a slug in it, when he fired. Allen said a second suspect was coming around the corner when he fired the shots, and he believes he struck one of them. The Lake County Sheriff's Department confirmed that police are investigating the incident, but did not have information on the status of the suspects and whether they'd been injured. Officials said police who responded to a 911 call from the home just before 10 p.m. Tuesday found Allen outside, according to the Northwest Indiana Times. Allen told police his dog alerted him after two men wearing black pants, black sweatshirts and ski masks entered his home, according to the Times. A K-9 searched the area, and the Lake County Sheriff CSI unit is investigating. Allen told the paper that one suspect fell down after he fired the shots before getting up and fleeing. An avid deer hunter, he said he never though he'd have to shoot a human being. "I've never shot a person in my life, and I don't ever want to again," he said.

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