Fresno-area mom uses high-heeled shoe to scare off home intruder

HANFORD, Calif. -- A single mother of three says she used her high-heeled shoe to scare off a man who broke into her home in Hanford early last Monday.

Kings County sheriff's deputies were able to arrest the suspect who nearly got away.

It was the middle of the night when the mother says she heard creaking and footsteps inside her home. That's when she grabbed the nearest weapon she could find -- a high-heeled shoe. The back door was slightly open and there was noise coming from the kitchen.

"I came around the corner and was going to lock the door, and I had my shoe, and he walked out from the laundry room and I went at him and told him to get out of my house," the Hanford mother, who didn't want to be identified, told Action News.

The woman says she quickly locked the door and stayed on the phone with a 911 dispatcher.

"I think one of the things that kept me most safe and calm -- I didn't lose my head and I thought through what I needed to do and then just executed it when it happened. I didn't wait for him to come at me," she said.

Sheriff's deputies found Cruz Aguilar Garcia, 28, hiding out in someone else's yard. The suspect was charged with residential burglary and robbery. He also has an Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold. They found him holding bags full of this woman's things.

"After the police came we found out that he had two laptops, a Kindle, a bar of soap and a piggy bank," the woman said.

In his 15 years of service, Kings County Sheriff's Sgt. Mark Bevens says he's never seen anyone fight off an intruder with simply a shoe. Luckily, she and her children went completely unharmed.

"It's terrifying for a single mother and her children to have somebody break into their house at 3 o'clock in the morning," said Sgt. Bevens.

Since the break-in, the mother says she's become more vigilant about making sure her home is safe. She warns others to always have a plan in case something like this could happen to you.