It was the dog barking that woke him. Like everyone else in the area, Giovanbattista Navarini was worried about break-ins and burglaries. When he got out of bed at around 4 a.m. he heard someone in the courtyard of his villacum-farmhouse. Mr Navarini did not think twice. He went for his Browning revolver and leaning out the window of the bathroom fired two shots, one into the air and one at ground level. He fired the shots, he explained later, to "scare them off".
Not sure if the intruders had left, Mr Navarini then called the carabinieri and awaited their arrival before stepping outside with the police to assess what had been stolen. He and the policemen discovered that the shots had indeed scared off the would-be burglars since the intended booty was abandoned.
Piled beside one another was a collection of gardening tools. Some yards away, however, Mr Navarini and the policemen made a rather more sinister discovery when they came across the body of one of the would-be burglars, 32-year-old Mirko Trentini. It seems Mr Navarini's second shot had hit Trentini in the head, killing him on the spot.
The killing took place last Friday morning, just outside the village of Castenedolo, near Brescia in northern Italy. Mr Navarini (56), a land owner and property surveyor, was taken to his local police station and charged with "voluntary homicide" before being allowed to return home under a mild form of house arrest.
At national and local levels his unfortunate experience became a major news item last weekend, if albeit for different reasons. The mayor of Castenedolo, Giambattista Groli, told reporters that Mr Navarini was an "exemplary" and "generous" citizen, adding: "Around here you won't find anybody who says that he did wrong. I condemn the serious thing he did, but that does not alter my respect for him nor my friendship with him. You have no idea how many people have said to me in recent months that, if they come across a thief in their house, they'll kill him on the spot".
The people of Castenedolo told reporters that just about everybody in the village has been robbed in recent months. Even the parish priest, Padre Carlo Pillon, admitted that his church had been broken into twice, adding: "It's understandable, people are fed up with all of this robbing.."
Up the road in another small village, Lonato, the family of Mirko Trentini saw things differently. Mirko had been a heroin addict from the age of 25, someone with a lengthy criminal record for a series of minor offences. Despite those problems, relatives insisted he was "a good boy".
The killing might have passed unnoticed were it not that it happened during a week marred by violent incidents. Last Wednesday, police in Padova, northern Italy, had to intervene with tear gas to break up a street battle between rival gangs of north African immigrants.
The following day, in Acerra near Naples, two boys on a moped attempted to rob a travelling brush-salesman. The robbery failed, with the salesman starting his van and speeding away. As his assailants opened fire on him, Laura Castaldo (16) was hit in the head by one of the bullets. She is in grave danger of losing her sight.
During the next 48 hours two others died in violent circumstances, with a policeman being shot in Napoli and a man found dead in a Turin apartment on Sunday. His hands and feet were tied and his mouth taped, perhaps by burglars who wished to keep him quiet but did not intend to kill him.
The principal outcome of this week of violence is that the issue of crime-fighting has again hit the national stage, provoking bitter differences of opinion between the centre-left government and the centre-right opposition. Both are concerned by the alarming rise in petty-crime (recorded robberies went from 1,760 in 1970 to about 32,000 in 1997).
In response to calls for "zero tolerance", the government wishes to introduce measures that would increase the investigative powers of magistrates and police, while increasing prison sentences for crimes such as robbery. However, the centre-right opposition leader, Silvio Berlusconi, condemned the government's proposals as "worthy of a police state".
Nor was Mr Berlusconi likely to have been over-enthusiastic about the weekend call from the former chief anti-Mafia investigator in Palermo, Sicily, Giancarlo Caselli, who suggested that parliament should limit the possibility allowed in Italian law of appealing sentences twice. In effect, this practice turns even minor trials into lengthy ordeals.
Mr Berlusconi's liberal views have no doubt been influenced by the fact that over the last five years, he has been investigated on charges ranging from fraud to Mafia collusion to corruption. Even though he was convicted three times on corruption and fraud charges, Mr Berlusconi has appealed the convictions, arguing throughout that he and his associates are the victims of a political witch-hunt. This debate will run and run.