Nathaniel Nuckols was charged with felony first-degree burglary, making terroristic threats and misdemeanor obstruction. (Cobb County Sheriff's Office)
Members of a Georgia family returning home Wednesday after traveling over the holidays said they were stunned to find that a man they did not recognize had changed the locks and claimed the house was his.
Janice Henson told WSB-TV the key to her family's Marietta home wouldn't work when she tried the lock. Matters took a bizarre turn when a man in a wheelchair came to the door and told her to leave. Henson said the stranger also claimed to have a gun.
Police were called, leading to a five-hour standoff between officers, a SWAT team and the suspect. At one point, WSB reported, the SWAT team broke down the door and sent in a robot to locate the suspect.
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The man, identified as 26-year-old Nathaniel Jacob Nuckols, eventually surrendered to law enforcement. He was charged with felony first-degree burglary and making terroristic threats as well as misdemeanor obstruction. He was being held in the Cobb County jail in lieu of $33,220 bond.
Henson told WSB she did not know how long Nuckols had been in their house, but she noticed that some of the family's belongings had been moved and all their food was gone.
"He also left us notes thanking us for the key and thanking us for letting him live here, and it was his house now,” Henson told the station. “He moved all the pictures, emptied drawers. He was making this house his."
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