Women Panic After Finding Man In House

A Summerville man was charged with loitering after a homeowner found him asleep inside a Fourth Street residence on Saturday, according to city police reports.

Rhonda Summerlin and Annie Vaughn called cops after their noticed items from the abandoned home were missing. The house had been bordered up because of a mold issue. They felt someone was living in the house.

Officer Matt Pritchard went to the house and walked inside to look around. Summerlin and Vaughn followed inside.

“I then observed a large pile of cover near the door. When I pulled back the cover I could make out a body slumped over. I asked both women to leave the house at which time Terry Byrge made a groaning noise sending both women out of the house in a panic,” Officer Pritchard stated. “Mr. Byrge was ordered to crawl out of the room at which time he was taken into custody with Miranda read. I asked him why he didn’t come out when he knew I was inside the house. He stated he had just got out of jail a few days before and was just trying to stay warm and out of the weather and did not want to go back to jail.”