On Jan. 5, Tory Smith, junior, and Jacky Smith, freshman, received the shock of their lives when a stranger walked into their house, attempting to burglarize them. Chad McIntyre, 25, first entered the house through an unlocked door and began to walk around the house looking for help since he had locked himself out of his car.

“My sister (Jacky) walked down the stairs to see him walking through the door,” Smith said. “At first she thought it was one of my (older) sister’s friends, but then she realized that it was a stranger because he was acting so weird.”

McIntyre then walked out of the house into the front yard. At this time, Smith’s mother, Sue Smith, became aware something strange was happening. She went outside to see what McIntyre was doing.

“My mom went outside and realized that he was wearing my coat, my shirt and my gloves that had been left in our car,” Smith said. “My mom asked him, ‘Why are you wearing my daughter’s clothes?’ He was honest and said that he was cold.”

Smith’s mother, thinking that he was under the influence of drugs, made a quick decision. She grabbed an energy bar from her car and gave it to him. She wanted to prevent McIntyre from “tweaking out” due to the drugs that she thought were in his system. She went back into the house saying that she was going to get a coat hanger to help him unlock his car. While inside, she called 911.

When police arrived, McIntyre fled the scene.

“We were in the house, looking out the window at what was happening. We see (McIntyre) take off, and then we see a police officer running in that direction. A few minutes later they had a K9 unit come in so that they could find him. After fifteen minutes, they caught him hiding in some bushes down my street. Once they arrested him and put him in the cop car, they realized that he was on meth.”

Once police arrested McIntyre, they searched his car. They soon realized McIntyre had stolen the car he had been driving and coming across a loaded firearm that had been left in the back seat of the car. While this concerns Smith, she doesn’t think the gun was an issue.

“I don’t think that he would have used the gun if he had it with him because he was so nice and so cooperative,” Tory said. “He wasn’t threatening at all.”

This wasn’t McIntyre’s first burglary. At the time of this latest theft, he was on probation for another robbery. McIntyre has been charged with the unauthorized use of a vehicle, first and second degree burglary, second degree criminal trespassing, possession of a firearm and possession of methamphetamine.

Looking back, Tory is able to laugh off what could have been a very serious situation. “It would have been scary if he hadn’t been so stupid.”