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Armed Homeowner Scares Off Thief Who Tried to Take Advantage of Hurricane Matthew Chaos

Massachusetts gun owners face long wait periods for fire arm I.D.'s
Man fires gun / AP
October 21, 2016

An armed South Carolina man was able to defend his home from an intruder in the middle of the chaos caused by Hurricane Matthew.

"It was a strong guy, a big guy," Myrtle Beach resident Ben Hough told WMBF.

"I wouldn't have been able to kick that out," he added, referencing the door the intruder smashed through to get into the home.

The ordeal began the night that Hurricane Matthew hit the Carolinas. As Hough slept alone in his home after evacuating his wife and grandchildren, he heard a loud crash downstairs. A man had smashed through the glass section of his side door. Hough leapt into action, grabbing his gun and taking up a defensive position at the top of his stairs.

"He came across my dining room and to the foot of my stairway," he told the news station. "I had a revolver and fired at him twice."

Hough does not believe either shot hit the intruder, but they were enough to send him scrambling for the door.

"I missed, obviously, but I think I scared him," he said. "He certainly didn't expect to see me."

Though the power was out in Hough's home, he had enough charge on his cellphone to call police.

"I don't remember anything about the hurricane at that time," he told WMBF. "But the police were just as nice as could be, and the police couldn't have been more helpful to me. They probably settled me down a lot."

Police told the news station that they kept police on the streets through the hurricane and were able to respond quickly to the attempted burglary.

"We definitely had the officers on hand to increase our patrols," Lt. Joey Crosby of the Myrtle Beach Police Department said. "So we had officers on the roadway that were very visible."

Hough was uninjured during the ordeal and nothing ended up being stolen from his house.