It was 10:30 p.m. on a quiet Friday night.

Anthony Mills, a 59-year-old retired Anne Arundel County Police officer, rested in bed. His wife, Kim Mills, 62, had just returned to their Morrell Park home from a night out with friends.

Kim was getting ready for bed when she realized she left something in the car. She quickly scurried out, grabbed what she needed and bolted back into the house, locking the back door behind her.

Then came barking. Scooter, the couple’s tan-and-white shih poo, was erratic, barking and pacing from the top of the stairs to the bathroom. Probably riled up by another dog on the TV again, Anthony thought. He was wrong.

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Scooter’s barks continued, finally drawing Kim out to the hall to see what was upsetting him. She walked back and forth past the stairs a couple of times before switching on the light and descending.

“The only thing I could think to grab was a pen. At that point I was shaky,” she said. “Halfway down the steps I could see the man’s profile, and I could see his tennis shoes.”

For a split-second Kim froze. Quickly realizing that at any moment the man could jump up and grab her, she said she rushed back to the bedroom and told Anthony, who hustled over.

The stranger wearing a red shirt and blue hat was motionless, crouched down with his hands tucked up by his stomach at the bottom of the staircase. That’s when Anthony’s 25 years of police training and instinct kicked in.

“I tried to get him to give me his hands and he wouldn’t do it,” Anthony said. “I grabbed the hammer on the steps and I smacked him to try to get his hands and he continued to fight.”

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The two scuffled through the house, each pulling at the hammer and Anthony managing to repeatedly strike the stranger’s head with the tool until they both eventually went crashing through the front door and onto the porch.

Anthony screamed out for help as they wrestled, the bloodied stranger repeatedly apologizing amid the fight. Kim, frightened, dialed 911.

Anthony’s howls caught the attention of a group of young adults down the street. A man ran over and untangled the hammer from the pair, allowing Anthony got the intruder on the ground. Two women blitzed over to Kim who was shaking with fear.

“They had come and put their arms around me, giving me a hug and were walking me away from the situation so I didn’t have to see it and tried to calm me down,” Kim said.

By the time police arrived around 11:30 p.m., Anthony had muscled the man to the ground and held him there. Blood trails covered the porch and splattered onto the Mills’ door.

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Anthony didn’t recognize the man, but said he smelled of sandwiches and recognized his shirt from a local sub shop.

Officers took the man into custody and transported him to a nearby hospital to get treated for serious injuries, said Lindsey Eldridge, a Baltimore Police Department spokeswoman. He will be taken to Central Booking after he is processed.

Anthony said he’d never experienced anything like that in the community but expressed appreciation for the way neighbors came together to help his family.

Although police have the man in custody, what happened that night still haunts Kim.

“Every time I walk past the stairs when I’m upstairs, I keep seeing him at the bottom of the steps,” she said. “I just hope that goes away soon.”