My dad went to work one morning, my mom was alone with me - I was about a year old. Back door was locked, and my mom suddenly heard this noise like someone was trying to open it from the outside. Looked through the kitchen window and saw a black guy in overalls trying to break into the house. My parents had a friend who was a cop, so she phoned him, terrified. He came over in a couple of minutes, the flying squad a bit later, but the suspect had already legged it after my mom shouted that she'd phoned the cops.
After the cops had inspected everything around the house they found that this guy had probably been waiting in the garden shed for my dad to leave for work. The cop who was the family friend told my mom to buy a gun, and if anything like that happens again, to point the gun at the door, keep pulling the trigger until the gun is empty, and if the body is outside the door, pull it into the house and THEN phone the police. Apparently even back then it was the only way to claim it was self defence: the guy had to have been INSIDE your house.