Hell call a locksmith after you shoot the perps for breaking and entering your home and trying to make off with your belongings.
Or at the very least call the cops and get a gang of tough friends to break down the door and beat the thugs into submission. There is more to this story.
Why did the woman meekly submit to the thugs? Why did she do nothing until her husband returned? Does she have no friends, no family, no neighbors? Were the police not contacted? She was surprised to find her home ramsacked. Why?
This makes no sense.
This is NYC. Defending your property (if you're one of the little people) is a much more serious crime than the one the thieves committed. In NYC you'd go to jail and the thieves would get a slap on the wrist if anything (remember Bernard Goetz). Secondly shoot them with what? Again this is NYC. Where are you going to get the gun to shoot them with? If you own one at all unless you have a carry permit (and the little people simply aren't granted those in NY) it's going to be in your home that the scum are in possession of.