PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. -A Pierce County woman was terrified over the weekend when she woke up to a stranger in her house rubbing her face.
She ran to her neighbor's house and the neighbor contacted the Pierce County Sheriff's Office at around 5:30 a.m. on Sunday. Arriving deputies spoke with the neighbor who called 911. He was standing in the street holding a pistol.
Deputies also spoke with the victim, who reported that she had fallen asleep in her living room while watching TV. The victim said she woke up to a man she didn't know rubbing his hand across her face and telling her, "You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen." She asked the man who he was and why he was in her house.
The man said his name was Carlos and that he lived in the home, and she had let him in. The woman told "Carlos" to leave and he told her that she didn't have to be afraid of him. That's when the victim ran out the front door to get help.
She told deputies she had never seen the man before or the dark sedan that was still parked in her driveway. She also reported that when she fell asleep all the lights were off inside her house, but when the man woke her up, all the lights were on, which made her think the man may have been in her house for a while.
The victim's neighbor told deputies that when the victim came over to get help, he armed himself with a pistol and went outside to investigate. He told deputies he saw the man outside, but when he told the man to stop, he turned around and went back into the woman's house. He said he heard noise from the woman's backyard.
When deputies went to the woman's house, they found the front door locked. One of the deputies climbed the fence and opened the victim's gate for other deputies and got inside through a back door. Deputies searched the house and didn't find anyone inside. One deputy spotted a chair up against the fence along the back of the woman's property.
Deputies then ran the license plate of the car left in the driveway. They were able to pull up the registered owner's driver's license photo and began searching for the man.
About 6:45 a.m. one of the deputies spotted the suspect. The deputy asked the man what his name was and he said, "John Bush," the suspect pointed toward the victim's house and said he lived nearby and was looking for a lost animal. When the deputy asked the suspect if he was sure about his name, the suspect smiled and asked if the deputy would like his name to be "Carlos." He then refused to walk back to other deputies.
He said he hadn't broken into any homes. When the deputy told him he had scared a woman in her home, the suspect said it wasn't her home, it was his.
A second deputy arrived and the man was handcuffed and taken into custody. He was booked into Pierce County Jail for 1st degree burglary.