An Oregon man ended up naked and hanging by his leg upside down from a tree after a bizarre series of events in the aftermath of an alleged home invasion.
Police in Pendleton say they saw Steve Burton, 30, run off a cliff after escaping the home of Gail Wilson, where he showed up on Saturday wearing nothing but the grin on his face and said, “Hi honey.”
Wilson, a former corrections officer who was home alone, called 911 while the intruder took her black labrador to another room and wandered around the house.
She told KPTV that she was scared for her life, but her unwelcome visitor got mad and fled when she asked him his name.
Police arrived on the scene and said that Burton ran away, scaled a fence and fell down a 40- to 50-foot cliff. He tumbled down the steep bluff until eventually he was caught in a tree near the bottom, with his head five feet from the ground.
“It’s probably fairly fortunate for both Burton and law enforcement that he got hung up in the tree,” Pendleton Police Chief Stuart Roberts told My Columbia Basin.
“It’s probably one of the more bizarre things that I’ve heard of in my time in law enforcement.”
Wilson said that Burton was obviously high during the incident.
At one point, he allegedly grasped for the weapon of an officer trying to bring him down to Earth.
A group of about 20 cops and rescue workers eventually tied a rope to the naked man’s chest and one to his leg, maneuvering the ties until they could suspend the yelling suspect and bring him to the ground, according to the East Oregonian.
After placed under arrested and in a stretcher, Burton was taken to the hospital before going to jail.
He faces charges of burglary, harassment, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest and is currently being held on $62,500 bail.
