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ALBANY, GA --
It wasn't long into 2013 before Albany resident Patsy Sanders experienced her first stroke of luck in the New Year, as she managed to avoid being hit by two stray bullets that struck her house shortly after midnight New Year’s Day.

One of the bullets pierced the ceiling directly above where she was sitting.

"Everybody says I was, everybody says you’re lucky to be alive," said Sanders.

Sanders heard gun shots being fired from the mobile home park across the street at 10PM New Years Eve though the thought of one of those bullets striking her house never crossed her mind.

When the first bullet struck, she didn't know what it was. "I thought my walking stick had fell so I didn't get upset, the dogs did," said Sanders. 

It wasn't until the next morning when she found the bullets that she realized what had happened.

It's situations like these are why law enforcement officers say you should never fire a weapon in a residential area.

"You have to be really careful, it's very easy to kill or injure anybody out there," said Captain Craig Dodd from the Dougherty County Sheriff's Office.

Besides being potentially deadly, it's against the law to discharge firearms within the city limits and within 100 feet of a roadway or a house.

Depending on the situation a person could face jail time and a hefty fine, and law enforcement officers say it's up to resident to report these crimes so action can be taken.

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