Home Intruder Orders Woman to Cut Her Grass

But 'intruder' turns out to be overzealous Georgia county employee
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 10, 2012 1:32 PM CDT
Home Intruder Orders Woman to Cut Her Grass
To be fair, the grass was probably getting pretty tall.   (Shutterstock)

When it comes to victims of home invasion, you could do a lot worse than Erica Masters. The Georgia woman says she woke up one morning to find a man standing in her bedroom's doorway—to rebuke her for neglecting her lawn. "I didn't have my glasses on … and all I see is this big burly figure standing" there, Masters told ABC 6 after the July 2 incident. "It scared the mess out of me."

The man turned out to be Columbia County code compliance officer Jimmy Vowell. He "yelled at me to wake me up … and sign the violation notice," Masters says. She called 911, but the dispatcher refused to send a squad car after realizing Vowell was a county employee. Vowell was fired yesterday. In a Facebook message to the Columbia County News-Times, he said he'd smelled something strange coming from inside the house, and that the front door swung open when he knocked. (More Georgia stories.)

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