And finally… setting a good example

Matters were made worse for Melanie Romero, 35, when she discovered the homeowner was a retired police officer.

Homeowner Kim Steffen-Brauch speaking to WFMY News, said: “I felt this presence, almost like I could hear footsteps going across my living room.”

She drew her gun on Ms Romero after she entered the bedroom.

“That’s when I asked her, ‘What the ‘blank’ are you doing in my house? Put your hands up. Let me see your hands’,” she added.

Sheriff’s deputies were called and found Ms Romero’s children waiting in the car at the scene.

Ms Steffen-Brauch said: “Unless you’re desperate, you don’t get your kids involved — you just don’t.”

Ms Romero claimed she had walked into a stranger’s house because she was looking for a friend.

However, Ms Steffen-Brauch benefited from her police training.

“It just didn’t make sense, and I had a lot of red flags from my previous experience that said, ‘Don’t let her go,” she said.