It was the sound of a latch on the front door that alerted Aaron Poutanen of an unexpected visitor.
But when the door swung open and an elderly man in socks and pajamas walked in, he didn’t realize the danger everyone was in, including the intruder.
It was last Friday evening, a fire crackled in the front living room where Aaron and his wife, Annalee, painted. The door was left unlocked because of the constant trips to get wood from the front yard. That’s when the man walked in.
“I said, ‘oh, sir, you’re in the wrong house.’ I fully expected him to turn around and walk away,” Aaron said.
Worried the man was lost, he asked if there was a problem.
The 86-year-old man, who neither Aaron nor Annalee had ever met before, responded “you’re the problem,” then bolted forward and began strangling Aaron.
Within the following moments, Aaron managed to free himself of the man’s hands while Annalee called 911.
The elderly intruder, who they later discovered suffers from dementia, began pursuing Aaron throughout the home and began throwing things in his reach including ceramic coffee coasters and, at one point, tried strangling him again.
When emergency responders arrived, the man was restrained and taken to a hospital.
The trauma of the home invasion is still fresh in the couple’s minds, however, Aaron and Annalee are taking a different approach to their recovery.
Their hopes are to spread awareness of both the troublesome disease and of the importance of having an emergency response plan at home, especially in a situation like this, where even the intruder is vulnerable.
“Now that we’ve had this happen there are ways we can help others,” Aaron said.
During the intrusion, Aaron said he was conflicted over who he needed to protect, himself and his wife, or the senior who he figured was likely ill.
“In my head, I’m thinking number one we’re going to protect ourselves but ... like, oh my God, back and forth in your head you’re trying to protect yourself but you know it’s an old man – if it was a younger guy, I would have just tried to push them out the door or something,” Aaron said, who runs his own safety business and has years of experience in occupational health, safety and environment management.
The couple had coincidentally been creating a plan for their home a month earlier.
In the event of a home intrusion, he suggests each household devise a safety plan and a “safety room,” to distance yourself from the attacker in the least confrontational way. Items to include in the room, he said, are supplies such as a phone, flashlight, snacks, an escape ladder (if it’s on the second floor) and a lock on the door or large furniture that can be used as a barricade.
When it comes to dementia patients, Annalee said she understands all too well the effects of the disease when it took over her grandmother and doesn’t hold it against the man, nor against his wife who has since visited the couple to apologize.
“In my mind, everyone is a victim here,” Annalee said. “I’m not mad at him, it’s not his fault. I know that from having my grandmother and the difference in her when she deteriorated ... I saw my grandmother every day, she was like a second mom to us. We visited all the time and it was really rough to see where she ended up – who she was as a person compared to what she ended up as she was not her.”
The man’s wife, who the Cochrane Eagle was not able to interview, told the couple her husband had slipped out of the house while she was taking a shower. He had never been violent before this incident.
Though the Poutanens are working on creating and sharing emergency response plans, they are taking the trauma day-by-day.
“It’s traumatic still, you know, nightmares and flashbacks,” Annalee said.
Despite the stress, Aaron said he was just relieved that the man didn’t wander into the nearby river instead of their home.
“An emergency was happening as soon as the man left his home.”
