Woman Professes True Love After Marrying Her Home Intruder: 'It's a Beautiful Story'
A New York woman called police and pressed charges against an intruder after finding him asleep on her couch one morning. Little did she know, he would later become her husband and the father of her child, The U.S. Sun reported in October.
Katherine Johnstone, then 22, had asked her sister not to lock the door one night in 2016 because she would be home late after some partying.
But when Johnstone walked into the house at 8 a.m., her life would never be the same.
“I opened my front door, and I found this guy sleeping on our couch with a blanket over him. He was snoring and had taken his shoes off,” Johnstone said. “At first, I thought he was my sister’s friend. I got my flashlight up on my phone and was putting it to his face to try and work out who he was.
“I woke up my sister, but she said she didn’t have anyone over, and there shouldn’t be anyone on the couch,” she said.
When the sisters realized they didn’t know the man, they fled their home and called police.
“I was nervous as I didn’t know who he was and what his intentions were, but he was just peacefully sleeping,” Johnstone said. “My biggest concern was just to get me and my sister out of the house and make sure we were safe.”
The man, who police identified as Michael Johnstone, was charged with second-degree trespassing, and the local newspaper even printed his mugshot.
But when Katherine, then an elementary school counselor, began telling friends about the encounter, they found it funny.
She even discovered she had mutual connections with Michael.
“One of my friends said they knew him, and then other people started to tell me that they were friends with him and he was a good guy and asked us to drop the charges against him,” Katherine said. “After this, I called the county court and spoke to the prosecutor, and they had the charges dropped, but he still had to do 50 hours of community service.”
After dropping the charges, Michael eventually stopped by Katherine’s house with flowers and a handwritten note, apologizing to her and her family. He said he had been drunk that night and it was all just a big misunderstanding.
“I heard walkie-talkies over me before waking up, and I quickly realized this wasn’t a good situation,” said Michael, now 35. “Being woken by police and being unsure of where you are is never a good sign. I had gone out with my co-workers, and I don’t usually drink like I did that night.
“I’d reached out to one of my co-workers to sleep in his house, which was odd because his house wasn’t far from mine,” he said. “What I think happened was I thought I was going to his house, but the reality is I ended up at Katherine’s and fell asleep on her sofa. This is the only time I have ever been arrested.”
Michael said Katherine’s family appreciated the apology and that the exchange was a “pretty wild icebreaker.” This would be the first time meeting his future in-laws.
Katherine and Michael added each other on social media and began exchanging “likes.” Because she had a boyfriend at the time, however, the communication stopped there.
But after breaking up with her beau a year later, Michael eventually invited her to a Fourth of July party.
He proposed to her in New York’s Central Park, on Dec. 30, 2020; they married on May 14, 2022, and they now have a baby daughter, Mila, who was born in February.
“We laugh and can’t believe that this is how we met and now have got married and have a family. People bring it up all the time,” said Katherine, now 29.
“It’s a beautiful story and silly because it’s so unique,” she said. “I wouldn’t change a thing, and I think it makes our love even stronger. My husband is a great man, and I’m very lucky to have him. We’re very lucky to have each other.”
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