Though axes may look cool, they aren’t very useful against a gun.

A burglar miscalculated when he tried to break into WWII vet Joseph Milspaugh’s San Jacinto, California home by chopping away at the veteran’s window with an ax. His first mistake? Assuming a 92 year-old was an easy target. His second? Not considering that a elderly WWII vet might actually be armed himself.

“I let off a shot and he took off,” Milspaugh told local reporters with a chuckle. “He left his ax. He left his hat and everything else after that.”

At 11 a.m. on a Sunday morning, Milspaugh heard a noise coming from his backdoor and grabbed his 1911 .45 caliber handgun. When he made it downstairs, he saw the burglar shatter one of his windows and attempt to crawl into his home.

“It’s stupid what he did,” Milspaugh said. “Being a Sunday, he assumed that people would be going shopping or going to church and no one would be home, that it would be a good time to break in.”

Milspaugh said that he decided to fire a warning shot despite having a clear view of the intruder. “I could have shot him right in the head between the eyes. But I didn’t want to do that because I’d have been in trouble,” he said.

WWII vet: 1. Ax-wielding burglar: 0.

[Los Angeles Times]