STOCKTON–

A broken door and a smear of pepper spray doesn’t even begin to describe the minutes of terror inside Earl Lytle’s Stockton home Sunday night.

“He says, ‘Get on the floor, I’m gonna kill you, right here,’” Earl Lytle told FOX40.

It was late and Earl was sleeping when three men stormed into the home off of Hammer Lane, with masks on.

“A white t-shirt that was twisted that come up and try to cover his face and it had red on one side,” said Earl’s wife, Patricia Lytle.

The crooks knew what they wanted.

“Everybody knows I collect coins, but I don’t keep anything of major value here,” said Lytle. The three men got away with about $500 in coins. “These are all common coins, they’re not worth anything.”

While the men were breaking down doors, Patricia was trying to call 911.

“She was dialing 9-1-1 and he come over and grabbed the phone out of her hand and then pushed down the receiver,” he said.

But, that didn’t stop Patricia.

“I picked the phone back up and re-dialed 911 and that’s when they shot down the hallway and left,” she said.

A day later, there is busted wood, but no sign of bullets.

“We think it was a starter gun. We’re not sure. We can’t find any holes, but they fired 5 shots,” Earl said.