GASTONIA, N.C. -- An intruder forced his way into a woman’s home in Gaston County, and she said she had to pull a gun to protect her family.

“Now I can't believe I did it,” she said.

But Cinnamon Jones, who recently had back surgery for the second time, not only found the strength to hold the heavy gun while confronting an intruder, she also escorted him out of her home in the Fern Forest community.

“Kept going over and over in my mind, ‘Just get him out of the house! Get him out of the house! Get him out of the house!’” she said.

It started with a knock at her door early Friday. She looked out and saw a man she didn't recognize and didn't answer, figuring he would go away.

Instead, he went to the side door and knocked, and then to the back door.

Police believe he was checking to see if any one was home.

When no one answered, he climbed through the kitchen window.

Jones' 17-year-old son went in the bedroom with her. She grabbed an unloaded gun and a phone to call 911.

“Before I could get a number dialed, there was a man standing about 10 feet across from me in my bedroom,” she said.

She said he seemed non-chalant.

“He said, ‘I'm looking for Bobby Joe,’” she said.

She didn't know that name.

“I said, ‘I think we both know that no Bobby Joe doesn't live here.’ I said, "You need to leave here,’” Jones said.

But the man stayed there until she advanced with the gun, and she verbally challenged him when he said he came through an open door. All of the doors were locked.

“I said, ‘Which door did you come in through?’ He said, ‘The front door.’ I said, ‘That's the door you are going out,’” she said.

The man walked out of the door and disappeared. Police launched a massive search for him and even brought out dogs to track his scent, but they couldn't find him.

Gastonia police said if you are faced with a similar situation, using a gun should be a last resort. Detectives said call 911 first, and then tell the burglar that you have a gun.

They said stay on the line with 911, and then if you have to use lethal force you will have an operator as a witness to your actions.