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A 70-year-old woman held 28-year-old Cyrus Brown at gunpoint for several minutes in her kitchen in St. Joseph County, Indiana, after he broke through her back door following a nearby car crash, according to police and a recording of her 911 call.

The woman, identified only as Sandra at her own request, was splitting firewood and making soup around 9 p.m. on Jan. 4, 2009, when she heard fast footsteps outside near her deck, she told a local television reporter. She grabbed a handgun and called 911.

Moments later, Brown forced his way through her back patio door, breaking the glass. Police said Brown had driven off Portage Road, on the county's northwest side, and struck a utility pole before trying to get into the house. Sandra confronted him in her kitchen, ordered him to the floor and told him she would shoot if he came any closer.

"Get, get, get! You have more to fear from me!" she told a 911 dispatcher, according to the recording. Asked if she was holding the man at gunpoint, she answered, "Yes, I am. And if he moves towards me, I'm afraid I'm going to have to kill. I don't want to have to kill him."

St. Joseph County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Bill Redman said Brown was combative with deputies when they arrived, and officers had to wrestle him into compliance, but he never confronted the homeowner. Brown was booked on preliminary charges of burglary and intimidation.

Sandra was hospitalized afterward for stress-related heart problems and was awaiting a cardiac procedure days later, she said. Neighbors described her as someone who was not going to be pushed around. "Don't mess with the gray haired people," her friend Phyllis Barkley said. "We still got a lot of fight in us."