Grandmother Tells Of Tulsa Home Invasion

By Lori Fullbright, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- Tulsa has certainly seen a spike in the number of cases where criminals force their way into a home while someone is there. It happened two nights ago to a 75-year-old grandmother.

Joyce was asleep in her own bed when two men decide to kick down her door. It was terrifying for her, but she did some really smart things in the midst of her panic.

Joyce was awakened from a sound sleep at 2:30 in the morning Wednesday when someone threw a spray paint can through her window, maybe testing to see if an alarm went off or if lights came on.

7/15/2010 Related Story: Self-Defense Experts Give Advice On Surviving Home Invasion

"I sleep on that side of the bed, and there was glass from one end of the room to the other," she said. "They just chunked it."

Joyce stayed quiet, kept it dark and grabbed her cordless phone. She heard the men talking, and then they rang the bell over and over. Next she saw one come over the fence and up to her patio door.

Lori Fullbright: "Did they kick it in?"
Joyce: "No, they just knocked."
Lori Fullbright: "Oh, they knocked."

The men kicked in this door to the garage instead, then began kicking down the door between the garage and her kitchen.

"They were kicking it in as I went out front," Joyce said. "I figured if someone was waiting out there, so be it."

Barefoot and in her nightgown, Joyce hid between two neighbors' homes while she waited for police.

When officers arrived, the men were gone.

Lori Fullbright: "I'm glad you knew to get out. That's good."
Joyce: "I didn't know to get out; it was just instinct that told me to get out. I went in the closet first and thought, that's stupid, that's the first place they'll look, get out of the house."

Now, Joyce's family is buying steel doors, security lights, cameras, alarms - everything you can think of to make her once again feel safe in her own home. Even with all that, it's going to take some time.

"You feel so violated, really. I had never realized that," Joyce said.

Police urge people to add security measures before something terrible happens. They also remind people not to answer their door when people are knocking at crazy hours.

They say Joyce was smart to immediately call 911 on a phone that allowed her move around and get out as the criminals came in.