'There was a naked, random man': Nude stranger enters family's home before running into woods

PLEASANT PRAIRIE, Wis. (CBS 58) -- A woman home with her grandchildren was startled Friday when a naked stranger went inside her home and started talking to her toddler granddaughter.

Emma Swanson says she got a frantic call from her mother a little after 3 p.m. Friday as she was on her way back from work. When she arrived at their Pleasant Prairie home just south of 75th Street near 70th Avenue, she saw a large police response.

"There was like three regular cop cars, two undercover cop cars," Swanson recalled. "There was bike cops, and they were everywhere."

Swanson talked to her grandmother to learn about what happened. She relayed that she was home when she heard someone talking in a baby's voice and thought it was her 11-year-old grandson messing with the toddler.

"Talking to my 18-month-old, like saying in a creepy voice, 'Hi baby, hi there,'" Swanson said.

The grandmother, who declined to be interviewed on camera, said she moved closer to the kitchen in her wheelchair and realized it was actually a man she'd never seen before.

"When she came around, she saw just his eyes and his hair, and she realized it wasn't my son," Swanson said. "And that's when she came -- she's in a wheelchair right now because she got surgery -- she came flying into the kitchen, and the man stood up."

At that point, the grandmother noticed a few other unusual things about the stranger standing in her kitchen.

"A man who had bright red hair, was covered head to toe in mud, soaking wet, naked," Swanson said.

The grandmother said she began screaming at the intruder in the nude. As he retreated, she threw candles at him because that's what was at her immediate disposal.

"He started hugging his chest and just saying, 'Please don't kill me, please don't hurt me,'" Swanson said.

The man left the house and took off into the trees behind the family's house. Smears of dried mud were still visible on the front door, and Swanson said they came from the stranger.

"You can see the mud going along our door," she said. "And he took off through our yard screaming he was sorry."

Pleasant Prairie police did not respond to email and phone messages Friday asking for details about the incident. Recordings of Pleasant Prairie's dispatch channel Friday afternoon included a call addressing a "male subject was a male White, tall, thin, last seen westbound through the tree area," in relation to the call for service on 75th Street.

Swanson said police told her they found the suspect about 10 minutes after she got back home. She said police credited their use of a drone with helping them find the man. Along a trail behind the home, there were barefoot prints visible in the mud.

However, even the apprehension raised new questions.

"He was still pantless," Swanson said. "But he did somehow, between running out of our house and being found in the field, he had then put on a flannel and a jacket."

The family wonders whether the man has been camping out near their property for sometime. They suspect he got muddy and wet from either a pond or swampy area nearby.

While the man was seemingly scared off the property Friday, Swanson said the family is still on edge because they suspect he was either on drugs or dealing with extreme mental illness.

"Like is he gonna end up just coming back into this side of town? Is he gonna end up going home?" Swanson said. "Is he gonna go somewhere they can take care of him if he's mentally ill or if it's drugs, whatever the case might be. It's just worrisome knowing what could happen now."