Bend couple defends home against out-of-control man

A southeast Bend couple said they are changing the way they secure their home after a terrifying experience this week.

Around 1 a.m. Thursday, Ken and Margaret Erickson were awakened by Margaret’s father, who said he’d heard a loud noise.

The Ericksons live at the end of a cul-de-sac in the Stonegate subdivision, located between Highway 97 and China Hat Road.

Ken went outside to investigate the noise. He said he heard someone yelling for help. Then he looked under the deck, in case the person was hiding beneath it.

“Then I head a very distinct slap on glass, and at that point, I thought this person was on the deck and trying to get in the house,” Ken recalled Friday.

Then, Margaret said, “A face came out of the dark. I thought it was my husband. I wasn’t expecting it to be anybody but him. This person came up to the window and started banging furiously on the glass and I thought it was going to break.”

Ken grabbed a baseball bat and a small knife and stood at the door, asking the man to calm down and sit down. But he said the man tried to throw a barbecue through the window. After that, the Ericksons said, the man fell to the ground.

“I hope that he gets the help that he needs. It was heartbreaking to see someone so far gone,” Margaret said.

“But it could have been far worse,”

“Yeah, we are going to make some changes, probably install some security lights back here and start using our security system a lot more,” she said.

The man’s car was found down the nearby ravine, upside down on the railroad tracks. He had just missed crashing into the Ericksons’ home. Police were able to stop trains from running so they could get a tow truck down on the tracks to remove the car

The Ericksons said they believe the man was on drugs and said police had encountered him before.

He was taken away in an ambulance.

Police were not available to provide any details or confirmation of what transpired.