SOUTH BEND — Imagine being home when someone breaks in with a gun. That's what happened in three South Bend home invasions over the past two days. One victim shared her frightening story with WSBT.

Shelly Hartline was alone at her boyfriend's house Tuesday afternoon when she heard some noises at the back door.

"I walked out of there and stood right here and that's when I [saw] him," she said.

She called 911 and told dispatchers she thought someone was breaking in the house.

"[The dispatcher] just said 'lay beside the bed,' so that's what I did."

Hiding and scared, Hartline heard someone come into the house, then the bedroom.

"He was taking all the change off the dresser," she remembered.

911 dispatchers were still on the line. They told her not to talk, but signal them by pressing buttons on the phone when the man came into the bedroom.

And just when Hartline thought the intruder was going to leave, he found her.

"He walked over there and I was laying over on that side [of the bed], and he looked down and saw me. That's when he pulled the gun on me," she said. "There were so many things going through my head. I thought I was dead."

But she thinks he got scared and ran away. Police later arrested 31-year-old Israel Almanza for the robbery about a block away from the home.

But hours after police took him into custody, there were two more home invasions in South Bend. One of them happened on Taylor Street where a couple had to jump out of a second story window to escape three men who fired a gun at them.

South Bend Police Captain Phil Trent told WSBT in at least two of the three cases, the doors were locked when the suspects entered.
Hartline's door was locked, and the break-in was random, said Trent.

He also confirmed it was not connected to the other two home invasions that happened at 7:30 Tuesday night and around 11 Wednesday morning.

Random or not, Shelly and her boyfriend say they can't stop thinking about 'What if?'

"It was scary," she said.

"Things are pretty traumatic," said her boyfriend, Kenny Lula. "But it could've been a lot worse."

Police say Shelly did everything right — she called police as soon as she thought something was wrong, and she found a place to hide.

Late Wednesday night, police were still searching for at least three of the suspects involved in the other two home invasions.