Mother finds strange man in her attic

    JACKSON, Michigan (WSYM) -- Jackson neighbor Ashley Strong, after discovering an intruder in her attic last Tuesday morning: "I folded up the attic stairs and I slammed it shut and I just stood there and I screamed 'RUN!' to my daughter."

A nightmare come to life.

Here's her harrowing story of what she discovered in her attic when she woke up last Tuesday morning...and what she did next.

Strong knew her boyfriend David comes home from work early in the morning. But the ladder to the attic in its down position seemed strange when she awoke to use the bathroom around 6 a.m.

"I was thinking maybe David had come home early from work....David's son, maybe. He's an older teenager....I pulled down the stairs the whole way and I started to climb up them and I said 'What the…?'…and then it wasn't David's voice that responded."

A stranger's voice from the attic. Then — something even more frightening.

"At the top of the stairs, with his back towards me and his hood is up. At that point, he reached behind him…and did this [puts hand behind back waistband]. And so I screamed: 'Do you have a gun?!!'"

Strong says that's when a different mode kicked in.

"When I thought that was a gun, I just didn't know if my daughter and I were going to be OK by the time the cops got there."

They were able to get out of the house and call the police. According to Strong, police had to forcibly remove the stranger.

She's still not sure how he got in...and says it will be a while before she can feel safe at home again.

"I hope mine feels that way again," she says. "Right now it doesn't. At all….It messes with you."

The man has been charged with home invasion and assaulting a police officer. According to police, he's currently lodged at the Jackson County Jail.

A shaken Strong says she's nevertheless thankful the situation wasn't any worse:

"I think any parent in that scenario would be thankful that their kids got out even if they didn't."