A Virginia mom is hailed a hero by neighbors after she shot an intruder who was trying to break into her house.
The bizarre thing about it, is where the man came from. He had traveled from New Zealand after the woman's teenage daughter broke off their online gaming relationship.
The mother's husband told WUSA9 that he was in the car headed home from work when this whole this happened on Friday.
She called and told him that there was a man trying to break into their house. He told her to get the gun.
The man trying get in the house was Troy George Skinner, 25, according to Goochland County Sheriff James Agnew.
Two days earlier, Skinner left New Zealand, taking three planes to Washington and a bus to Richmond.
He was then seen walking on Steeplechase Parkway, a remote, wooded neighborhood of nice large homes in Goochland, west of Richmond.
The mother was in the home with her two teenage daughters as Skinner tried to get in the family's home.
First he knocked, and when no one answered, he went to the back of the house where he told the mom he needed help. The family's 14-year-old daughter recognized him. Skinner had been an online gaming partner on the video app Discord.
Recently, the 14-year-old had tried to break off their communications, according to Sheriff Agnew.
"He was not invited here. He was not expected here. He had been told in the past that this daughter no longer wished to communicate with with him," said Sheriff Agnew.
As the mom held her loaded 22-caliber handgun, she warned Skinner to stop. But he didn't. picked up a rock and broke the back door's and then reached in to unlock the door. That's when the fired. She hit him in the neck.
"Good for her. Absolutely. It's a hard decision to pull that trigger. For her to do that, takes a lot of guts. And, good for her because I think she would've hurt seriously," said neighbor Brian Sylvester.
The sheriff said before Skinner arrived here in Goochland, he stopped at a Walmart where he bought a pocket knife. He also had a pepper spray and duct tape.
"You don't carry those three items if you're not looking to do some kind of harm," said Sylvester.
After Skinner was shot he ran and collapsed in a neighbor's yard. He's now in the hospital under guard and will be charged as soon as he's released.
The Sheriff referred the case to the FBI to determined whether any federal charges are warranted.
