Woman wakes up to find her 'guard dog' asleep with a stranger

A Wisconsin woman had a surprising start to her year when she woke up to find her dog asleep with a stranger.

When Lynn Sarver woke up at 5:15 a.m. on New Year’s Day in her house in Waukesha, she saw her 130-pound “guard dog” Benton, 3, sleeping in his dog bed on top of a strange man who she initially thought was her son.

“It was dark in the house at the time,” Sarver, a nurse, told ABC News. “He was actually covered up in my dog's blanket.

“He had dark hair like my son, similar size,” she added. “Then I get a little closer and realized it wasn't him.”

Sarver said her 21-year-old son had gone out of town for the evening, but she thought he had returned home for the night.

When she realized that the stranger was not her son, Sarver and a friend who was staying over went to the kitchen to hide and called 911. Police arrived at her house right away and woke the man up.

“He actually was quite startled that he was in our house as well,” Saver said. “He was apologetic, and he had just explained that he had made a mistake.”

The police walked the man to his house, which is only a few houses away from Sarver’s.

Benton, a South African Mastiff, did not bark at the stranger, and Sarver said that she was happy that her dog did not hurt the man.

“My dog is smart and this young man was not a threat to us,” she said.

Sarver said that the young man and his mother came to see her on Wednesday to apologize.

When asked what she thought of the New Year ordeal, Sarver was forgiving.

“Well I just think it was an innocent mistake.”