A Tennessee woman installed an alarm system never known that the man she wanted to keep out, Tony Joe Gunter (pictured), was already under her bed, police say. (Metro Police Dept.)
A Tennessee woman had a restraining order against her ex-boyfriend and had changed her locks twice. She says neither kept Tony Joe Gunter away and so she opted to have a security system installed.
Authorities say the woman left her home in Goodlettsville briefly on Tuesday to visit a neighbor as an ADT worker was installing the alarm and returned to find her phone inexplicably missing from her bedroom.
Then she noticed a pair of feet sticking out from under her bed—Gunter’s. Fearing for her life, the woman shot him in his left foot then kept him there as the installer called police, authorities tell WZTV.
After a hospital visit, Gunter, 52, was arrested and charged with aggravated burglary, stalking, and other charges, reports the New York Daily News. Police say the woman won’t be charged because she acted in self defense.
“If he was trying to abuse her and she had a gun and she had a restraining order against him, then she has to protect herself,” a neighbor tells WKRN.
The pair reportedly dated for two years before the woman discovered Gunter’s “extensive criminal history” and broke off the relationship this month, per WZTV. Gunter then threatened to kill his ex, according to police.
She filed a restraining order but police say the woman discovered signs that Gunter had broken into her home three times before the encounter Tuesday. Gunter—who police say admitted to taking the woman’s phone so she couldn’t call police—is being held on $165,000 bond.
(Police say a man hid under his ex’s bed for days.)
This article originally appeared on Newser: She Was Getting Alarm to Keep Him Out. He Was Already In
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