A stranger walked into her home after being told to leave, so this mom chased him out

Erica Munoz was home with her family Sunday in Tulare when a stranger showed up on her doorstep.

Munoz used the video doorbell connected to her phone to ask the man, later identified as 35-year-old Martin Tovar, what he wanted.

Tovar initally spoke to Munoz in Spanish, looking for someone named Jose. After she told him no one by that name lived there, he walked away only to return – twice.

Munoz continued to ask what he wanted but Tovar just appeared confused by how Munoz could see him.

After tapping on a window, Tovar then walked backed and entered through the unlocked front door into the house where Munoz’s son was asleep.

In the video, Munoz can be heard telling the man, “Go. There’s no Jose. Don’t ever walk into my house again,” as she chases him out the front door and down the street.

“My immediate instincts were to protect my son,” Munoz wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday. “Lucky for me he didn't attack me and didn't have the chance to touch my son.”

Munoz also realized that the intruder had returned to her house late that night when she checked the surveillance video again.

Tovar was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of illegally posessing an assault weapon. But, according to Munoz, he had told detectives that he had intended to burglarize Munoz’s home. An emergency restraining order was issued to protect the family.

Munoz, in a later Facebook post, thanked the Tulare Police Department for finding Tovar. She had asked her friends to share the video to protect their neighborhoods.

“Everyone ‘thinks’ they know what they would do if something like this was to happen to them,” she wrote. “But you really don't until you are put in this situation.”

This story was originally published July 7, 2017 at 8:18 PM with the headline "A stranger walked into her home after being told to leave, so this mom chased him out."