Coriana Kretschmer and her teenage brother were both home when an escaped prisoner burst through the front door of their house in the port city of Takoma, Washington on Nov. 22.
Initially Coriana, 21, thought it was just family members returning home but quickly discovered it was a stranger dressed in a gray prison uniform and wearing broken handcuffs on one hand.
The 33-year-old man had just escaped from a police transport vehicle and was looking for a place to hide and, at that moment, that place was their living room.
But Coriana thought otherwise and her 13 years experience in training dogs helped her handle the situation.
But she wasn’t alone in dealing with the intrusion. Her baseball bat armed brother, Timothy came to help, as did two of their three dogs – Sugar, a poodle, and Honey, a labradoodle. Ottis, their Chihuahua, went into hiding.
“Learn to assert your dominance and know that it’s your home and not theirs. So if somebody is there, back ‘em out of your house. Just get ‘em out!” she said.
Coriana then called 911 and within five minutes local law enforcement officers arrived on the scene with a police dog who picked up the fugitive’s scent. It wasn’t long until the escaped prisoner was back in police custody.
The young woman told the local paper that she couldn’t stop shaking until later that night when she spoke with her boyfriend, a marine currently serving in South Korea.
“He said, ‘Honey, that could have been so much worse,’” she said.
The boyfriend was impressed by the way she reacted under such circumstances.
“I think it’s what most people would do,” Coriana said. “Somebody told me that now I know that when it comes to fight or flight, I would definitely fight.
“I just know everybody is OK and I made my Marine proud. So I’m happy.”
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