A Chatham-Kent woman is speaking out after a frightening experience in her own home.
On November 6, Ainslie DeBoer was at home in Charing Cross with her two sons, aged five and three, cooking dinner for the three of them. She had left her patio door open since she was using the barbecue.
After sitting down for a quick break, she heard a man's voice.
"I thought my husband was home and then my five-year-old says, 'Who’s here?' and I look at the patio door and there was this really tall man coming into my house," DeBoer said.
She explained the man ended up closing and locking the door, claiming someone was trying to kill him. DeBoer was also told by the man that she couldn't call the police.
“I said, 'You're scaring me' and he just sits at the island in the kitchen," she said. " Then he asks, 'Can I live here, can I stay here?'"
According to DeBoer, the man wasn't aggressive but looked unstable.
"He gave off that energy that if I said something wrong or called police he would turn on a switch," she explained.
DeBoer hid her sons in her room but stayed with the man while trying to find a way to call police without him knowing. She decided to lie to him, saying she could get him a beer from the garage but there was a dog in there. The lie worked as the man didn't want to go in the garage but wanted her to grab him a beer.
While in the garage, DeBoer called the police.
“I’m just shaking, praying police will get here soon," she said.
Before police arrived, DeBoer opened the front door so police could come in without knocking and scaring the man.
Eventually, officers arrived and convinced the man to come outside. That's where, according to police, the man allegedly assaulted the officers after trying to get back inside. Police arrested him and have since charged him with two counts of assaulting an officer and being unlawfully in a dwelling.
DeBoer mentioned two workers with St. Francis Advocates (SFA), a group home down the road from her house, arrived and told her that the man had broken out. A statement from the SFA Senior Management Team noted the man, while in a mental health crisis, escaped through an open window during a "moment of privacy."
"Thankfully in this situation, no one was harmed, but we do acknowledge this situation caused a sense of fear for the woman who encountered this person unexpectedly in her home, and for other community members," read the statement.
DeBoer claims she was told by the SFA workers that they hadn't called police and were looking for him themselves, though the SFA Senior Management Team stated emergency services were called immediately.
Meanwhile, DeBoer thanked CK police for handling the situation. She mentioned some officers also gave her kids some stuffed animals and stickers to help them feel better.