A Wildwood woman was arrested for burglary when she allegedly walked onto her neighbor’s porch with a bat after midnight.
Officers responded to a burglary in progress on County Road 138 around 12:35 a.m. Saturday, according ot an arrest report from the Wildwood Police Department. Dispatchers advised that 52-year-old Tonya Lynn Ecord was trying to break into a neighbor’s residence through the front door.
The neighbor explained that they were asleep in the bedroom when they heard a loud bang at the front door. The door was inside a covered porch that had another door with a “no trespassing” sign attached, the report said.
The neighbor stayed in the kitchen and yelled, “Who is it?” to which Ecord said it was her. They yelled for her to leave and go back home, but Ecord refused. The noises then stopped, the report said.
Video footage from above the door leading to the porch showed Ecord carrying a silver bat in her left hand as she walked onto the porch. She had her dog beside her as she told her neighbor to “get out here.” She ultimately walked back to her own home with her dog in tow, the report said.
The neighbor described fearing for their life and did not know what Ecord would have done if they came in contact with each other. The report noted a prior trespassing case wherein Ecord was warned not to come back to the neighbor’s house on Jan. 26. There was another trespassing incident reported on March 22, as well. That case remains active, and an arrest warrant is pending for that case.
Ecord was arrested on charges of armed burglary and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill. She was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center without bond.