The man whose home Titus Young allegedly entered in San Clemente, Calif., said he came close to shooting the troubled former Detroit Lions wide receiver.
Young pled not guilty to eight charges stemming from two separate incidents last week and remained in custody Tuesday night on $25,000 bail, according to the Detroit Free Press. Among those chargers is felony burglary for allegedly entering the home of Bill Plattos in the early hours of May 11.
Plattos told FOXSports.com that he was awoken by the sound of footsteps on the second floor of his house and thought 'I better check this out.'"
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Plattos said that as he was loading his gun, the door to his bedroom burst open.
"All of a sudden I see this big, not necessarily big, but a dark figure in the doorway and it startled me and it startled him apparently. I think he saw my gun and I just looked at him and said, 'You better get the hell outta here now.' He slammed the door."
Police arrested Young a short time later after a foot chase.
"I believe that he was not necessarily burglarizing the place, but I think he was trying to find a place to crash for the evening and then maybe he would take off," Plattos told FOXSports.com. "And so he was stunned when he found somebody home."
Plattos said the police explained to him how they thought Young entered the house.
"What happened apparently is he climbed up on the roof and he tried to get in the window. He took a screen off one of the bathrooms up there. He couldn't get it. He climbed down the roof and came down to my balcony in the back, which I usually leave open because it's the second floor. [The police] said 'oh yeah, he's really agile, he's been running around like crazy and he got in the house.'"
Plattors found out the following day that the man he had the encounter with was, allegedly, Young.
"I was really stunned. And I felt bad for him," Plattos said. "I'm sure glad that I didn't shoot him and I hope he's OK. I hope somebody helps him out."