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A Real Life 'Home Alone' Kid Shot a Robber with a Gun

"It was a full metal jacket bullet. It went straight through the back of his leg. He started crying like a little baby."
Thumbnail screenshot from 'Home Alone' (1990). Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox/John Hughes Entertainment

Read: America's Favorite Child Soldier: 'Home Alone,' 25 Years Later

Back in the early 90s when Macaulay Culkin was a cultural mainstay, kids left home alone might dream up all sorts of contraptions to ward off would-be burglars. Or maybe a BB gun if they were feeling really hard that day.

Now kids apparently just reach for an actual gun.

At least that's what 11-year-old Chris Gaither did when he heard someone break into his Talladega home on Wednesday. A local NBC affiliate reports Gaither, who is home-schooled, saw the would-be burglar leaving his house with a hamper. So he grabbed a trusty 9mm handgun and put a stop to it.

Gaither fired 12 shots at the intruder as he was making his escape through the front lawn. The first 11 bullets missed—presumably flying wildly into the suburban street as neighbors dove for cover and cowered in fear—but the final shot was true.

"I shot through the hamper he was carrying," Gaither, who sounds vaguely terrifying, told the local news crew. "It was a full metal jacket bullet. It went straight through the back of his leg. He started crying like a little baby."

Talladega police say the burglar, who has allegedly robbed Gaither's house in the past, is currently in the hospital getting his leg fixed up. His name has not yet been released.

"I hope you learn your lesson coming to this house trying to steal stuff," Gaither said.