Last month, Shelton was getting ready for work when she heard a strange noise as she was getting out of the shower. She went to see where the noise was coming from, and was shocked at what she discovered.
“I saw a man coming through the back of the house,” she said. “The first thing I thought was I gotta do something.”
Her husband wasn’t home and her teenage daughter was asleep upstairs.
“I peeked through the blinds, the blinds stayed closed and peeked through and saw him looking at me. I mean we made complete eye contact,” she said. “He proceeded to come through the back of the house, and I ran back and dialed 911.”
The bad guy had taken off by the time police arrived at the scene, but they were able to make an arrest within an hour because they had a “good description,” Shelton said.
Along with stealing several antiques from her home, the intruder violated Shelton’s sense of security.
“It’s really hard, you don’t think about standing at the sink washing dishes, but with every dish that I wash, I’m constantly turning and looking over my shoulder to see if somebody is looking in.”
As a direct result of her experience, Shelton signed up for a gun safety class to learn how to load, shoot, store and clean a gun. She works on her shooting skills at the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency in Bartlett and plans on obtaining her concealed carry permit. Her daughter is also attending classes with her.
“I’ve enjoyed it, I’m glad to know that I have a 15-year-old daughter and she knows the safety and the rules, and I feel pretty confident in her if she ever had to use a weapon for her defense.”
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Shelton’s instructor, Donna Holloway, told News Channel 3 that over 200 women have taken her gun safety course since it started last year.
“We have a large group of women that want to learn more about their weapon, want to be comfortable with it, want to be able to protect themselves and their family,” she said. “Policemen and their husbands are not always going to be there to protect them, so they need to learn how to protect themselves when they’re out doing their daily lives.”
“Every woman is capable of doing this,” Holloway added.
