At 5:15 p.m., December 26, 1998, Mary Lou Krause sat at the kitchen table in her singlestory brick house in Swanton, Ohio. Her husband, Jerry, was at the stove cooking dinner. Mary Lou glanced up from the table and saw someone move past the picture window. She told her husband that a person she didn't know was at the back door.

In a recent interview, Mary Lou recalled, "We have this plan that if someone comes to the door, I get the gun" Mrs. Krause went into the bedroom and retrieved her Astra .22-caliber revolver. Then she moved back into the kitchen and stood a few feet from the door, out of sight of the man on the porch.

The man asked Jerry directions to the local Masonic Lodge. This was not unusual as they lived near a major highway and people often stopped to ask for help if theircar broke down or if they needed directions. Jerry opened the door, and began to explain how to get to the lodge.

Mary Lou remembered, "The next thing I heard was a voice saying, 'Let's all go inside.' This was a big, loud, booming voice. The next thing I saw was this arm coming through the door with a big gun."

Suddenly, Jerry Krause was struggling for his very life.

A second man had come up from behind and began to force Jerry into the kitchen, but the retired masonry foreman was having none of it. The homeowner fought back. As the battle raged in the doorway, Mary Lou maneuvered herself so that she could shoot without hitting her husband. The man with the gun saw her and simultaneously raised his gun to fire.

Mary Lou recalled, "I stepped out from behind the door and fired. I hit him in the arm and he immediately returned fire. His bullet grazed my hip."

The assailants panicked and ran.

Mary Lou explained that as the first man reached the gate, he turned around and fired again. The bullet hit the house and ricocheted into the screen door. Fortunately, by that time Mary Lou had slammed the door shut, so the bullet didn't hit her or her husband.

The homeowners both dropped to the floor and crawled into the kitchen. Jerry Krause pulled the drapes on the big window, then retrieved his gun. Jerry then ran to the telephone and dialed 9-1-1 while Mary Lou stood guard.

"It happened so fast you just had to go on instinct," Mary Lou said. "When the first man knocked on the back door, the second man went around to the front of the house and tried to open the front door which we always keep locked. Then he went all the way back around the house and jumped on my husband's back. The assailants were trying to wrestle him into the back door."

The sheriff's department arrived a few minutes after the suspects fled. Deputies circled the house and called out police dogs in an attempt to track down the suspects.

"The sheriff's department did an excellent job," Mary Lou said.

An ambulance transported Mary Lou to the hospital where her flesh wound was treated and bandaged. She returned home later that night.

The next afternoon the first suspect, Christopher Matthews, appeared at a Toledo, Ohio hospital with a bullet wound in his arm. He was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and attempted first-degree murder. He later plea-bargained his sentence to five years in prison.

Mary Lou Krause is still upset by the lenient sentence. "He tried to kill us," she said. "Another half-inch and I'd have been dead."

The second suspect, whose name is known to police, is still at large.

Mary Lou thinks their plan was what saved the lives of her and her husband. The nearly 70 year-old couple explained that their house is semi-isolated, so they make sure they take care of themselves.

"The best way I know to do that," said Mary Ann, "is to have a gun and know how to use it.

I would like people to have a selfprotection plan. If I only save one person, it'll be worth it. When people knock on the door, I look out this picture window. If I know them, I let them in. If I don't know them, I get my gun and stand behind the door so they can't see me and I let my husband talk to them. I'm ready if needed."

"A handgun is a necessity for everybody;" she continued. "I wouldn't feel safe without one. The government shouldn't ban handguns:"

Sheriff Jim Telb called Mary Lou Krause's actions heroic. "She was protecting her home," he said. "She was absolutely correct in defending herself."

Mary Lou has made only one change in her plan. Now, instead of a .22-caliber pistol, she has a .38 Special "It makes bigger holes," she said.