North Carolina Couple Mistakes Roomba for Intruder

Thomas and Elisa Milam were upstairs watching a movie when they heard a noise that sounded like footsteps coming from downstairs. Believing their young family was in danger, the couple sprang into action.

Police in North Carolina swarmed a home expecting to nab an intruder but instead were met with an overzealous vacuum.

Thomas and Elisa Milam were upstairs watching a movie when they heard a noise that sounded like footsteps coming from downstairs. Believing their young family was in danger, the couple sprang into action.

Thomas grabbed his gun while Elisa called 911

“We think someone’s in our house,” Elisa could be heard whispering during the call.

“Alright, hang on, I’m gonna get help started that way, okay?” the 911 operator said. 

Police arrived within minutes.

“I come out, you know, with my hands out the door so they could see it, and they all had their guns drawn and were pointing up the stairs,” Thomas said. 

The Milams waited while the officers checked their home, and it wasn’t long before they had a surprising question. 

“’Is this Roomba yours?’” Thomas recalled them asking. “You can imagine the shame and embarrassment from that.”

The couple’s 2-year-old daughter had apparently hit a button on the vacuum that scheduled it to power up at midnight. 

“They were like, ‘how long have you had this?’ and I said, ‘about two days,’ and they all just started laughing,” Thomas said. “You could say it had a clean getaway.”

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