SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- In an instant, her security was gone. A woman says she's fortunate to be alive after a man with a knife slipped into her house. Jamie Wise says her goal is to serve as a warning to what can happen in just seconds.
It was 6 p.m. on a Wednesday and just getting dark. Wise had recently returned home and her garage door was still open. A man, who was a stranger, walked in to rob her.
"I was standing in my kitchen talking on phone with my boyfriend, and the door opened over here. It was opening slowly. I was walking toward it, and kind of peeking my head around because I found it to be strange. I asked my boyfriend, who was on the other end of the phone, if it was him. He said no, so I started getting closer to the door and then he walked in and he was dressed in all black and he had a knife in his hand," Wise said.
She says the whole thing is surreal.
"It was just survival mode. Eventually he got me back here (in the hallway) and, when we got about right here, he told me to get into the bathroom and I tried to fight with him again and I pushed him away and tried to run out this way and he caught me. He told me to get into the bathroom and lock the door."
This total stranger had a knife to her stomach. Wise was defenseless.
"I immediately started screaming help me! I knew that my boyfriend was still on the other end of the phone, so I was screaming as loudly as I could hoping that he would hear me so he would know something was happening."
Fortunately, her boyfriend could hear the whole thing. He called 911, but Wise was stuck inside with no way to get out. Every neighbor was likely home, but none were the wiser as to what was going on inside.
It's usually quiet in her neighborhood, just off Sunshine Street at Eastgate Avenue in east Springfield. Wise says she wants everyone to know that it might not stay that way.
"No matter where you live, you just have to be so safe and so careful. You can't take anything for granted just because you are in an area that does not have a lot of crime typically."
The robber got away with her cash. He was covered up, so she could not get a good description of him.
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View the video above to hear one of the top experts in the country talk about his advice for these type of situations.
