CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A West Charlotte community is on alert after a man armed with a gun tried to break into a home on Thursday.
It all happened around 7:30 a.m. at a home on Merryvale Lane. The frightening ordeal was captured on video. Homeowner Bryan Williams said he's still in disbelief over what happened.
Williams said he'd never seen the mean before, doesn't recognize the truck he was driving and doesn't know why his house was picked. However, he's glad the man never made it inside and nobody was hurt. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police haven't provided any updates on the incident as of 5 p.m. Friday.
"It's not how I imagined spending my Thursday," Williams said. "I heard someone lightly tapping on the door. I saw them on the Ring and thought they would just go away."
The intruder disrupted what is normally a quiet neighborhood. However, the mean didn't go anywhere when no one answered. Instead, he lingered in front of the door with his back turned. Williams said he was getting ready for work when the man tried to kick down the door.
“I pulled up my phone, yelled, he fled and I saw he had a gun,” he said. “In the moment you don’t have time to think. I just kind of was like, 'I don’t know why this man is kicking my door' and just had to yell at him to get him to go.”
Williams said the man drove off in a truck that was caught on his Ring camera. Williams said all of his neighbors also have cameras installed, giving an extra measure of security.
“I thought it would be a good thing to have because people bring packages, you kind of see that stuff,” Williams said. “I never thought it would be to deter an armed robbery.”
The intruder’s truck was captured on other cameras in the neighborhood.
“People began to download all of the videos they captured of the car apparently driving all around the block because it came back this way,” Thomas Lacher explained.
“It didn’t seem like it was someone from the community, just someone trying to catch a quick break-in," Alex Gambrell said. “We’re all pretty safe here, well I thought. It's a scary thing to happen, but at least everybody made it out alright."
The entire incident is concerning for people who live in the area.
“I was shocked,” Gambrell said. “You don’t really see that kind of thing in our neighborhood and it’s scary. I’m glad we all have Ring cameras in this neighborhood.”
Lacher said everyone's still shocked it could happen in their community.
"It just seemed like such a bizarre incident," he said. "Just no logic to it, how it happened, 7:30 in the morning, leaving your car parked in front of it."
Neighbors believe the man is connected to another crime in the nearby community. Ring video was shared in their community groups the following day, showing a man with a similar dark blue pickup truck, and similar blue sneakers stealing packages from someone’s home.
Contact Jesse Pierre at jpierrepet@wcnc.com or follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.