A Virginia family returns home to find floors and walls of their house splattered with blood after their German Shepherd attacked an intruder while they were out.

The Chesterfield County family told WRIC that there had been a string of break-ins in their neighborhood, and they found they had been targeted as well.

The would-be thief is likely to think twice before he returns.

When Tristan Murrin and his mother walked into their Richmond home one day, they didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

When Murrin saw his beloved pooch, Oden, waiting to greet them at the front door, he knew something was amiss.

That's when he noticed drops of blood on the first floor. And when they checked upstairs, they found the walls, carpets, and floors covered with blood.

Murrin, the first to discover the bloody scene, told the outlet:

"We didn't see anything wrong - nothing at the front door."

"We noticed something when we walked in, when I walked in with my mother and there are blood spots on the ground, we looked upstairs and you see trails of blood coming from upstairs going all the way down."

The intruder had apparently broken into their home without realizing the family's German Shepherd was inside.

Murrin revealed nothing was stolen from the home. The intruder was no longer inside by the time he and his mother arrived.

Family members insisted their pooch has never been aggressive before.

Murrin told the outlet:

"He plays with the kids."

"The community loves him. The kids come up to him and want to touch him and play with him."

He added he's proud of the dog, who he calls his best friend, when he protected their home:

"I think the dog did its job. He knew that someone was not supposed to be in my house and no one was home. He knew that he wasn't supposed to be in there, and he was doing something that he wasn't supposed to be doing, and so he knew to act upon it."

Murrin also posted a video of the bloodied carpets and doors on Facebook, which has already been viewed more than 16 million times.

Words attached to the clip read:

"My best friend Oden, a German shepherd, protected my home and belongings when I wasn't there; I couldn't be more proud of him."

"Such an amazing breed. That's why everyone who doesn't have an actual dog should consider adopting or buying a dog."