True Crime Lite: The Intruder That Just Needed To Sleep It Off

Many of us can say we've had a rough night out. Maybe you got too drunk and got sick. Maybe you somehow got stranded at a bar or a club. An intense fight could've even broken out, shaking the whole crowd up. Few of us can say that we've wandered into the wrong house at the end of that terrible night, making it all the worse. What's more, even fewer can say that they ate out of the kitchen, swam in the pool, used the bathroom, and went to bed without noticing. Disturbingly enough, there is at least one man that can make that claim.

In the latter half of September, 2021, Stacy Steadman awoke in her Canton, Ohio home early one morning. Like any of us, she likely rubbed her eyes, stretched her muscles, and felt the cold of the floor beneath her feet after rising from the warmth of her bed. As she sleepily navigated the home, possibly making her way to the coffee pot, she noticed a light coming from her spare bedroom.

Stacy didn't live alone, but she also didn't have guests staying in that room. Her husband, Raymond Pearson, and his brother, Bryant Pearson, also lived in the home along with Stacy and Raymond's son. Raymond had left for work at 4:00 that morning and her son was likely at school since this was a Monday morning. The only two people that should have been in that house were Bryant and Stacy. Curiously, Stacy made her way to the guest room door to investigate. When she saw a man she did not know sleeping in the bed, she quickly ran away from the door.

Stacy ran into her brother-in-law's room and woke him. Bryant reacted quickly, getting up and chasing the man out of the house. On his way out, the random intruder actually stopped and grabbed a pair of Stacy's son's underwear. The two were left standing there incredulously after the underwear snatcher's departure. They called the police and began to inspect the house for missing items.

The only other missing item in the entire house was the family's leftover chicken from the night before. This apparently hungry and tired intruder helped himself to the remnants of their dinner from the previous night. Stacy also found that the sliding glass door leading to the backyard was standing wide open. When she walked outside to investigate she found a pair of soaking wet pants lying cold by the pool. Police surmised that the man had decided to take swim while he was there enjoying the rest of the family's amenities. She even found that he had lit a candle in her bathroom. It almost sounds like this guy thought he was at home or at a hotel for a one-night visit.

Raymond Pearson would say later that he noticed a man wandering the street in front of his house before he left for work that morning. He noted that the man wasn't wearing a shirt and seemed to be just wandering aimlessly in the street. He decided to wait until this man passed by his house before leaving for work. He said, "When I left here, my family was sound asleep. My family was safe."

The man wasn't hard to locate and was found nearby by police. He appeared to be intoxicated so he was taken to the emergency room for evaluation. The chicken thief was charged with burglary and issued a summons to appear in court. While he gets to spend the rest of his life known as the man that broke into a house to steal chicken and underwear, Stacy was left rattled by the encounter. After all was said and done, no one was able to tell her how the man even entered her house to start with. A place she'd called home for more than 10 years suddenly seemed much less safe to her now.

Though this encounter could've went so much worse than it did, we can breathe a sigh of relief that no one was hurt. The thought of someone breaking into a house when they have no idea what could be there to meet them inside is just terrifying. Typically you would think that kind of person would be fearless. In this case, the man was simply too drunk to even care if he walked into the right house. Luckily for this family, he was just looking for a cold swim and a meal to sober him up and a place to sleep it off.

Some takeaways from this story: If you're going out for a fun night of drinking, maybe call an Uber from where you've been partying at. While it's never a good idea to drink and drive, it's also not a good idea to drink and take off walking for many reasons. If you've walked into a unfamiliar house while drunk, turn around and leave, don't have dinner. And finally, you should never swim in a person's pool without permission and never while drunk. The only thing I will give him credit for lighting a candle. I'm sure he had a good reason.