An astonishingly brave mum from Texas managed to take control of a terrifying situation when a man broke into her house and took her and her two small children hostage.
The mum, only identified as Renee, was watching a film with her four-year-old son and her 9-month-old baby, when a stranger broke down the door and came into her house.
"I heard the bang, and I thought it was my neighbour closing the door. When I heard the second bang, the light came in and wood flew in. That's when I knew someone was here," Renee recalled.
Seeing his many tattoos, Renee thought the man might be from a gang. In fact, he was being hunted by police for armed robbery.
With an incredible presence of mind, Renee decided the best way to keep everyone calm, was to pretend nothing was wrong.
"In those situations, the most thing you need to do is calm the perp down and get them to talk to you," Renee said. "I wanted him calm because I didn't know if he had a weapon."
In order to keep things quiet and to humanise herself and her children, she introduced the man to her son, saying he was waiting for a lift.
"My son asked who it was. I made up a name. I said, it's just Mr. Jay waiting for his ride, and he was like, okay, and showed him his toys," said Renee.
The family were held hostage for over two hours, with Renee keeping up pretences and the man repeatedly apologising, telling her he "wouldn't want to put his kids through this".
Thankfully the situation was resolved when police tracked the man down. "When the cop knocked on the door, the door opened. At that point, he lunged to push the door closed, and I just pushed my kids into the bedroom," Renee said.
"As soon as I heard the cops tell him to get on the ground, I started hysterically crying because I knew I was safe."
Renee is very shaken, but glad she was able to keep the full terror of the situation from her children.
"Luckily, my son doesn't really know what happened. All he knows is a guy came to visit and was rude and wouldn't leave."
