Stranger found asleep in woman's basement has criminal past

MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (WJBK) - A woman comes home and notices something is definitely not right - she calls police who find a strange man sleeping in her basement.

He walked into River Park Estates and told investigators he remembers drinking with a friend and was dropped off.  But 33 year-old Robert Bauman doesn't live here, doesn't know anyone here 

He's from West Bloomfield his last known address is in a room here in the Riverfront Inn in Mount Clemens.

So why he was in River Park Estates on 21 Mile Road and how did he get inside a house?

"I don't know how he got in," said the homeowner. "I'm afraid to go outside."

She arrived home after 3 a.m. and all was quiet. Her adult son and another adult male relative were fast asleep. But she was stopped cold when she noticed things out of place.

"Things were scattered through the garage and it does look like what he was after was food," she said.  "He ripped open boxes of food items."

She woke her son and the other relative. They peered down the basement steps and noticed a lid to a salsa jar that they never opened. Someone had been dipping into salsa but who and were they still in the house?

They all ran outside and called 911 and said Macomb County deputies arrived very quickly.  With guns drawn deputies said they used a canine and found Robert Bauman drunk, sleeping and slumped over a work desk.

He was arrested without incident.

"So many different scenarios could have happened," the homeowner said. "If I had been a half hour earlier was he in the kitchen at that time before he made it to the basement."

The family's two dogs either did not bark or they did bark briefly but when no one woke, they went back to sleep. There was no sign of forced entry. The family believes all doors and the garage were locked.

"You know you could have had a confrontation a lot of times these confrontations can turn deadly," said Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham. "An individual grabs some kind of weapon, a knife, but luckily in this situation he went downstairs into the refrigerator, got a little snack and passed out on us."

"Had I seen this person If he had wanted something I would have given him the shirt off my back," the homeowner said. "But now you invaded my privacy --you invaded my safe place."

Robert Bauman is facing charges of Breaking and Entering, he has a lengthy criminal history if convicted he faces 5 years in prison.