A supposedly quiet and peaceful nighttime tuck-in quickly turned into a horror story in Kansas when a babysitter discovered a suspicious man hiding under the child’s bed after checking for “monsters.” Turns out, it wasn’t just any man, but also someone who had an abuse protection order to stay away from the house.
The incident happened on March 24 around 10 PM in a Patton Road neighborhood in Great Bend, Kansas. The anonymous babysitter was preparing to put the children to sleep when one kid complained about a “monster” under their bed. So, the babysitter, wanting to assure the kid, checked under the bed to supposedly prove that monsters don’t exist.
Sadly, the babysitter was quickly proven wrong after she came face-to-face with a male suspect hiding under the bed. Panic ensued, and the babysitter and one of the children were even knocked over in the resulting altercation, which led to the male suspect fleeing from the house.
The Kansas Sheriff’s Office was promptly alerted, and deputies were dispatched to the 2,000-block neighborhood on Patton Road. While they hadn’t caught the suspect on that same night, the authorities managed to identify the man as 27-year-old Martin Villalobos Jr., a former resident of the house.
Although Villalobos was under a protection order to stay away from the residence due to prior abuse charges, that didn’t stop him from infiltrating the children’s bedroom. Thankfully, it appears the babysitter and the children weren’t further harmed apart from the struggle when Villalobos escaped.
They Didn’t Find the Monster Until the Morning After
The deputies had no luck searching for Villalobos Jr. on the night of March 24, but they managed to locate the suspect’s whereabouts on the morning of March 25. Villalobos Jr. even attempted to flee from the deputies but was ultimately caught after a short pursuit and was afterward transported to the Barton County Jail.
Due to his priors, the nature of his crime, and his attempted escape from deputies, Villalobos Jr. was booked on charges of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated burglary, aggravated battery, child endangerment, felony obstruction of a law enforcement officer, and violation of a protection-from-abuse order. His bond is set at $500,000, according to the Barton County Sheriff’s Office.
It’s not clear whether Villalobos Jr. is related to the children of the house he snuck into, but regardless, the children referring to him as a “monster under the bed” could mean that they didn’t recognize him. In any case, the usual reaction to the odd crime drew some comparisons to horror stories and even some jokes.
“So the kid wasn’t wrong; there was a monster under the bed,” according to Redditor readerf52
“Welp, there are two people that will never sleep soundly again,” suggests Redditor AdamayAIC