Showering Home Intruder Calls 911 on Homeowner
Portland, Ore., man calls 911 and says he was kidnapped, forced into shower.
March 8, 2011 — -- A man called 911 to say there was a burglary in progress and he wanted police to come protect him. The caller, however, was the alleged intruder.
Timothy James Chapek, 24, had allegedly broken into a home in Portland, Ore., and was taking a shower in the house when the woman who lived there returned about 7 p.m. Monday, according to police.
Chapek leaped into the bathroom, locked the door and called 911. "I just broke into a house and the owners came home...I think they have guns," he told the operator according to the 911 audio tapes.
He goes on to tell the operator that he has no idea where he is.
"I'm up in the hills," he says.
Click Here to Hear Audio of the 911 Calls
When asked what his name is, he grows quiet, saying the homeowners can hear him. The homeowner, Hilary Mackenzie, can be heard confronting Chapek. Her two German Shepherds can be heard barking during the call.
Mackenzie asks, "Why are you in my house taking a shower?"
Chapek responds, "I broke in. I was kidnapped."
He tells the homeowner his name. When Mackenzie tells Chapek that she's calling the police, he says, "I've already called them. They're on the phone right now."
Mackenzie calls the authorities anyway, standing on the front porch wearing slippers and no coat and even laughing at time about the man who broke into her house.
"I said who the hell are you and he said Timothy something...He said he broke in and he was kidnapped and he was taking a shower," she tells the 911 operator.
Chapek told police that a group of men had kidnapped him and put him in the bathroom, according to a police report.
Mackenzie and her daughter had returned home fron running an errand at the grocery store Monday night when they heard a man's voice coming from their first floor bathroom, according to the police report.
The bathroom windows were fogged up and a towel was thrown over the stall of the shower. Chapek still had a wet head from his shower, according to the police report.
Mackenzie, in her own call to 911, said that her daughter first thought there was an intruder.
"My daughter said you know I hear a man in the house, I thought, oh no, don't be silly," she told the 911 operator.
Click Here to Hear Audio of the 911 Calls
Mackenzie told the 911 operator that Chapek was "obviously nuts."
"We dispatched a number of officers including our K-9 unit and went into the house and found him in the bathroom," Sgt. Pete Simpson from the Portland Police Department said.
"Based on what I learned last night, maybe there's some issues with mental health or substance abuse or both," Simpson said.
It's unclear if Chapek was intoxicated at the time.
Chapek was booked into the Multnomah County Jail last night and was released today. He will be charged with a misdemeanor for criminal trespassing, police said.
Chapek did not manage to take anything from the home.
"It appeared more as though he wasn't intent to steal...he just wanted to take a shower," Simpson said.
Chapek has an extensive criminal record for non-violent crimes, police said. He was arrested as recently as late January.