News

Actions

Man with ax breaks into Mesa home, homeowner locks herself in bathroom

Posted at 10:31 PM, Jul 03, 2017
and last updated 2017-07-04 12:15:59-04

She was sound asleep, when her door bell rang twice. What happened next though, was the most terrifying two minutes of one Mesa woman's life. 

Erika Grijalva can't sleep, and she can't eat anymore. 

"It's something you see in the movie," she said. "It's something you think happens to someone else."

A young man stormed into her home near 8th Avenue and Dobson Road on Sunday evening; he was armed with an ax.

"I hear a guy's voice, 'Is anybody here is anybody here?'"

She quickly locked herself in her bathroom and called 911, but he started slashing through the door.

"I see it coming through and I see it coming through and I start yelling, screaming," she said. "At this point I don't know if he is here to kill me, I don't know."

He said he wanted cash and guns but Grijalva had neither. She handed over her laptop and tablet, and satisfied with that, he left by jumping her back fence.

Grijalva won't sleep until he's off the streets.

"I don't want this to happen to somebody else," she said. "People can be aware, people can be safer."

Police believe that same man broke into another house nearby but no one there was home. They did find the ax in the yard, but still no sign of him.