CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A family's dog, who they say has a bark far bigger than his bite, is being credited with scaring a home intruder away in Charlotte.
Martin Jacobs was awoken early Monday morning to the sounds of an intruder inside his home along East 7th Street near Elizabeth.
"I heard creaking of the floor, I saw flashing lights of a flashlight," Jacobs recalled. "So I called out really loud, 'Hey! Who's in my house.'"
Moments later his golden retriever, Gus, barked and ran down the hall, scaring the intruder away.
"Gus will take care of me," Jacobs said as he petted his dog inside his house Monday evening.
Jacobs said moments before the suspect entered his home, a man could be seen roaming on his front porch via his Ring doorbell camera.
"It definitely was a scary situation without a doubt," he said.
The man is spotted looking directly in the camera, waving in front of it as if he was checking to see if it was working. A car drives by behind him, but it doesn't spook the man. Instead, he wanders over towards a window accessible on the porch.
Jacobs believes the man then entered through a window that was accidentally left unlocked during ongoing home renovations.
"I think the individual had no intention of harming me," Jacobs said. "Just saw that the home was likely not occupied since we're doing this work."
However, he and his dog were sleeping in the kitchen because of the renovations.
Jacobs said by the time he could get up to the front of the house, Gus had scared the intruder away.
A large hole that was ripped through the plastic that had been hanging behind the window shows where the intruder came in, Jacobs said.
He called the police and filed a report.
Jacobs said he wanted to warn others to be on the lookout and take all precautions necessary to guard their homes.
"Leaving the lights on, making it seem like someone is here, taking the extra precautions to check the windows at night," Jacobs said. "We have an alarm system but we don't have sensors on the windows. That might be something we change in the future."
For now, Gus will be his alarm with a good record already for scaring someone off.
Contact Hunter Sáenz at hsaenz@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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