BILLINGS — A Billings couple is speaking out after a terrifying home invasion that could have ended very differently. Joyce Zinkowich-Wanner and Kenneth Wanner experienced every homeowner's worst nightmare when a stranger entered their Heights home in the middle of the night over a week ago.
The Wanners make it a daily routine to lock their doors, with Kenneth checking and Joyce asking for confirmation. But on this particular night, neither followed their usual security protocol.
Watch Joyce and Kenneth talk about the scary encounter:
"I lock all the doors here, and Joyce will ask, 'Are the doors locked?' You know, 'I'll check,'" Kenneth said Saturday. "That night she didn't ask. That night I didn't check."
Around 1:30 in the morning, their dog Ollie provided the first warning sign of trouble.
"While I was in the bathroom, Ollie dog started alarm-barking," Joyce said. "That's the first time I've really heard an alarm bark."
When Joyce looked up, she saw a stranger standing in their bedroom doorway.
"All of a sudden I was just screaming at the top of my lungs," Joyce said.
Wet footprints revealed the intruder's path led directly to their bed.
Joyce and Kenneth said that the intruder entered through the side door of the garage and entered their home.
"He had walked right up to the bed," Joyce said.
Kenneth immediately confronted the man, demanding answers.
"What is your name? What are you doing here? How did you get in?" Kenneth said.
What started as a tense situation quickly shifted when the couple realized the intruder wasn't aggressive.
"The man was very compliant," Joyce said. "He appeared to be very scared," Kenneth said.
The couple made a crucial decision to remain calm, hoping the intruder would do the same.
"He didn't move backwards. He'd like to run away. He didn't move forward to be aggressive. He just stood there," Joyce said.
For nearly 30 minutes, the man remained inside their home. Eventually, Kenneth led him outside and immediately called 911.
"They did catch him down the street aways," Kenneth said.
The frightening encounter served as a wake-up call for the couple, who have since upgraded their home security.
"Now we have, you know, dusk to dawn lights on the front, dusk to dawn lights there, dusk to dawn lights on the side. We've put motion security lights up," Kenneth said.
Kenneth said that they also added new locks on all of the doors.
For Joyce, it was an experience she never imagined would happen to them.
"I never really in my wildest dreams ever thought this would happen with us," Joyce said.
While this situation ended safely, the Wanners acknowledge that future encounters might not go as smoothly.
"How it ended up was the perfect way. The next time, who knows? The next person who knows? Everybody's going to react differently," Kenneth Wanner said.
