CITRUS HEIGHTS-

Residents of a Citrus Heights neighborhood are speaking-out about a terrifying stand-off that had their neighborhood shut-down from more than an hour Friday night.

It started with a home invasion, interrupted by one woman who reportedly chased the would-be burglar off her property.

We won’t identify her by name.

“My fear just took over. I reacted and I just wanted us to be safe,” she said.

The burglar cashed the car he was driving in his attempt to flee, and then took-off on foot, looking for a home to hide in, according to police.

“I put my hand on the door and he was standing there,” said Susan Smith, who came face-to-face with the man through her sliding glass door. “I screamed.”

The suspect ran, and found another house to hide in. But it was a house that wasn’t empty. Leslie Allen’s 22-year-old daughter and her daughter’s friend were at home.

“We’re Christians, so the automatic response was to pray,” said Allen, who was coming home from a movie.

She was able to text with her daughter, who was hiding in a locked, upstairs bathroom as the police surrounded the home and tried to get the suspect out.

More than an hour later, it was Allen’s daughters who came out first with their hands in the air, until police could be certain they were who they said they were.

“They were able to rationalize it – ‘we just need to get out of the house, and as soon as they identify who we are, we’ll be okay,’” Allen explained.

It was a chaotic scene, but tactically textbook, according to police who say these neighbors made the right moves the bring the nightmare to an end.