‘This is my home’: Woman confronts intruder in Ogden Dunes as son calls 911

Just after 3 a.m. on Aug. 13 Claire Innes stood face to face with the barefoot, disheveled intruder in her Ogden Dunes home.

She confronted him near her home’s back door. Shards of glass from several broken windows littered her living room.

“You’re not supposed to be here,” the intruder blurted out to her.

“This is MY home!” Innes blurted back.

He ran away through the back door into the woods behind her home, leaving behind only a blood stain on the door frame.

Innes and her 18-year-old son, Max, called 911. Within three minutes, Ogden Dunes police officer Tim Beach arrived, followed by backup units from nearby departments. A Portage police officer, Rick Krieg, arrived with his K-9 unit, Falco.

The dog followed the intruder’s scent to an outdoor deck of a neighbor’s home. Police officers yelled for the suspect to come out. He refused. Falco went under the deck and drew him out into police custody.

The suspect’s name is Robert Michael McGrath, 26, of Chicago, police said.

“All of this action occurred in just 26 minutes,” Ogden Dunes police detective Mike Teeling said.

After McGrath was apprehended at the neighbor’s house, he was taken back to Innes’ home so she could identify him. He was then transported to a hospital to treat a bite wound, then to Porter County Jail.

Back at Innes’ home, where she has lived for four years without incident, she and her son were still shook up. It was Max who first saw someone shining a flashlight through his bedroom window.

“I banged on my mom’s door to let her know,” Max told me.

“I told Max to lock himself in his room and call police,” Innes told me.

Seconds later, they both heard the crashing sound of living room windows breaking. One window shattered when McGrath threw a flower pot through it, police said.

“The noises scared us. Four windows. Crash… crash… crash… crash,” Innes recalled when I visited her home after the incident. “And then I watched him enter my home.”

Ogden Dunes, a lakefront community located north of U.S. 12 in Porter County, consists of roughly 1,100 residents and 644 homes. Teeling said this incident was random, and Innes’ home was not targeted.

“If that’s the case, then why did McGrath tell me I wasn’t supposed to be home,” asked Innes, standing at the exact spot where she faced McGrath.

Also, why did McGrath break four windows, not just one, to enter her home?

“We don’t know. It’s kind of a mystery,” Teeling said.

McGrath attended a party at a neighbor’s home the night before he entered Innes’ home, police said. At some point around 3 a.m. he wandered away from the party and headed toward Innes’ home, just north of Diana Road, according to court documents.

“Did someone give him wrong information to come to my house instead of another house?” Innes asked.

Days later, Innes, a former Post-Tribune employee, and her son are still upset. Rightfully so. They feel violated and vulnerable, double-checking door locks at night, peeking into the woods surrounding their home. It’s human nature to do so.

“My son was truly distraught and unable to work the next day,” Innes said. “He’s having a hard time sleeping. Our house was trashed, glass everywhere.”

Innes wants justice, as anyone would.

“The charges against (McGrath) seem so lame to me,” Innes said.

According to the probable cause affidavit, McGrath is charged with residential entry, a Level 6 felony, as well as trespassing and criminal mischief, both misdemeanors. The possible jail sentence for this crime could be between six months and two years.

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There are no guarantees of jail time. Innes knows this all too well.

“I feel like the damage to my home was extensive and serious enough proof of intent to do further harm inside my home,” Innes said, noting the possibility of a Class X felony charge.

Porter County Prosecutor Brian Gensel told me that the state of Indiana doesn’t have a Class X felony or the charge of criminal home invasion.

“Damaging property is criminal mischief and, due to the amount of damage, in this case it is a Class A misdemeanor,” Gensel said.

The next issue is whether the facts constitute residential entry or burglary, he said. To establish burglary, you have to prove that at the time of the entry the defendant had the intent to commit a felony inside the building or structure.

“Typically that felony is theft,” he said. “In this case, we can’t establish what his intent was when he entered after breaking windows. Hence, the residential entry and trespass charges.”

Innes wonders if the charges would be harsher if she didn’t confront McGrath so quickly, or if she and her son didn’t immediately hear the windows breaking. “Or what if I had a gun to protect myself and my son? What would have happened then?” she asked.

To a layman’s perspective, “mischief” sounds like harmless vandalism by juveniles, not the crime of home invasion committed by an adult, Innes said.

McGrath, a U.S. Navy veteran, has no criminal record as an adult, Teeling said. Innes is still looking for proof of this claim.

Teeling said he spoke with McGrath’s father, who lives in Illinois. He offered no explanation for his son’s actions that morning. The father also offered to pay for the damages to Inne’s house, Teeling said. Innes isn’t interested.

“His son was drunk when he did all this damage,” Innes said. “He put us through a nightmare of a night.”

Teeling said no test was conducted to determine if McGrath was intoxicated.

As soon as he was allowed to bond out of jail, McGrath did, for $1,500. His court hearing is scheduled for Aug. 29. Teeling said Innes doesn’t need to be there. I’ll bet she shows up. I know I would.

Just like that blood stain on her back door, McGrath’s crime has stained Innes’ feeling of safety in her home.