I’d call it the feelgood story of the day except (a) it’s actually seven weeks old and is only now making the rounds, probably because the sheer satisfaction of it has finally sent it viral, and (b) the reason he was surprised is because this wasn’t their first encounter, sadly.

In the first incident, the woman heard glass breaking in her basement about midnight on Saturday. She went to leave the house, and the man attacked when she opened the front door. He punched her in the face and then forced her into a bedroom, where he raped her, said H. Morley Swingle, prosecuting attorney in Cape Girardeau County…

She was home alone again Friday about 2:15 a.m. when Preyer broke the same basement window. The victim was awake watching television, when Preyer switched off the electricity to her house.

She tried to call 911, but couldn’t because the power was off. She got a shotgun and waited as the man began banging on the basement door. She fired when Preyer came crashing through the door. When Preyer collapsed, the woman escaped and went to a neighbor’s home, where she called police. Officers, who arrived within a minute, found a bleeding Preyer stumbling away from the house. He was taken to St. Francis Medical Center, where he died several hours later.

Swingle said the victim identified Preyer as the attacker in both incidents. Preyer, of Jackson, Mo., had wet caulking from the recently repaired basement window on his clothing when he was shot.

No charges, of course. Here’s news video from the week after the incident; Preyer had been married for four months at the time and left eight kids without a father. Exit question: With 11 felonies to his record and enough criminal savvy to cut the power in the home, how many more rapes did this woman prevent?