CEDAR SPRINGS, Mich. (WOOD) —A Michigan woman who installed home security cameras just a couple of months ago woke up to quite a shock early Sunday morning.
It was just before 2:15 a.m. when Angela Schreuder woke up to the sound of her dogs barking.
“When I jumped up, I could see the silhouette of someone sitting. All my lights were off … and he had his hands up over his head and I flipped on the light and that’s when I realized that he was fully nude,” Schreuder said.
The man was standing in her house in front of the entryway corned by the two dogs. Schreuder immediately yelled to her father who lives downstairs to call the police.
“My fear turned to anger, and I was screaming at him like, what are you doing in my house? I wanted a response, and he was just sitting there naked. He didn’t give me a response. I threw shorts at him to put on as I was waiting for the police to come get him out of my house.”
Schreuder has three kids, but they happened to be at their grandma’s house that night. She said she’s thankful they weren’t home.
“If I’m tore up about this situation, I could only imagine the fear in my children that it would have instilled in them, in their own home with their mom and dad seeing me be helpless like here by myself with my disabled father. Not being able to do anything.”
The incident made her feel like her safe space was taken away.
“I can’t sleep at night. I’ve literally the last three days, I go to bed with my police scanner next to my ear, watching my cameras.”
“When someone comes into your safe space and they’re uninvited and you don’t know their intentions, we certainly understand how scary it could be,” said Sgt. Joy Matthew’s with the Kent County Sheriff’s Office.
While Matthews couldn’t comment on the specifics of this incident, she encouraged people to make sure they lock all their doors and windows, invest in surveillance systems if possible and know that if someone does enter your home, you have the right to protect yourself.
“They might be there to harm you or they might be there to take something from you or they might be under the influence of drugs or alcohol or suffering from dementia or autism. We always encourage our residents to just take an extra few seconds, if able and try to evaluate the situation,” Matthews advised.
Schreuder said she is not a violent person, and she is thankful the situation didn’t turn out any worse. She also explained that normally she keeps her doors locked, but after working on her camper late into the night, she fell asleep quickly without doing so. Now, she’s hyper-aware of it. She’s also looking to press charges, saying there should be consequences for the choices people make.
“For your actions there’s reactions and there’s consequences for that and I just I’m paying for it. Mentally, I’m losing a lot more than what he is.”
Police couldn’t comment on what made the man go into her home or why he didn’t have any clothes on.
