The 67-year-old retired lobsterman, who is hard of hearing and winces in pain when he moves from his motorized wheelchair to a stuffed sitting chair, said he just got tired of people ripping him off.
Police charged the alleged intruder, Christopher Wildhaber, 45, with burglary after a surgeon removed the 7 mm slug that Lembo fired into his shoulder.
Lembo said he had lamented to a friend over the weekend that he was tired of having his one-bedroom apartment burglarized -- five times in six years, he said, the most recent incident just two weeks ago.
The friend said he had a gun and if anybody robbed him, he would shoot them.
Lembo thought about it for a day, and then decided to get a weapon for himself, picking up a 1941 Russian-made revolver. He wouldn't disclose where he bought the long-barreled weapon that he said looks like something the Royal Canadian Mounted Police might carry.
"I never planned on using it," Lembo said.