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Woman Says Naked Man Walked Into Her House, Said 'Hi, Honey'

Brian MacMillan

PHILADELPHIA (CNN) -- A Pendleton woman says a naked man walked into her house, tried to hug her and said just two words -- "Hi honey."

He later had to be rescued after running from police, falling down a cliff and getting stuck in a tree.

Gail Wilson has muscular dystrophy. Her muscles are weak and the disease makes it hard to get around. However, Wilson is a former corrections officer who knows how to handle herself and she thinks her training may have saved her life.

It all started Saturday when Wilson says she was eating some soup in her house and a man appeared at her door completely naked. Wilson first thought the man was the victim of an accident or crime, but quickly realized that wasn't the case.

Wilson said the naked man had a big grin on his face, said "Hi honey!" and opened his arms while walking toward her.

"With my muscular dystrophy, I needed him to get close enough to me so I had the strength to push him away," Wilson said. "My first thoughts were, this is it. This is my time. He's going to rape me, beat me, kill me."

The man was later identified as 30-year-old Steven Burton.

Wilson gave him a shove on his chest and told him to get away. Wilson says he sat down on her scooter for a while and looked around the room. Then, he grabbed her dog and took it down the hall into one of the bedrooms where he was gone for a few minutes.

Wilson got on the phone with 911 and the dispatcher told Wilson to ask for the man's name when he returned. Wilson said that when she asked, he got mad and ran out the door.

While running from police, Burton jumped over a fence on the property and tumbled down a steep hill forty to fifty feet until he got his foot stuck in a tree.

"That's a long drop and he did a lot of tumbling. All I can say is, he's lucky he's alive. He's lucky those trees caught his foot," Wilson said. "I'm thankful it wasn't my time and I'm thankful that he chose my house instead of some young girl's house, because the outcome could have been totally different."

Wilson said she is grateful to the Pendleton Police Department, especially Sgt. Charles Byrum, who helped her through the scary ordeal.

Wison said she usually keeps her pistol in her bedroom and couldn't get to it. She said she plans to keep it in her front room from now on.

As for Burton, search and rescue crews pulled him out of the tree. He was taken to the hospital for examination and cops arrested him on charges of burglary, harassment, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2016 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

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