A sword-wielding Wisconsin man who rushed to the aid of a woman he thought was being raped in the apartment upstairs was carted off to jail after police discovered his neighbour was just watching porn.
The cries for help pouring through the floorboards sounded far too real to James van Iveren, who told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he was just acting on instinct.
“It was a woman screaming,” he said in an interview published on Wednesday. “She was screaming for help.”
Van Iveren (39) was listening to music in the apartment he shares with his mother when he heard the repeated cries for help.
He grabbed his 1m-long cavalry sword, a family heirloom, rushed up the stairs and broke the door down. A criminal complaint said he then rushed into the room waving the sword at his neighbour and demanding: “Where is she?”
The neighbour told police that Van Iveren became increasingly aggressive as he led him throughout the apartment, opening closet doors to prove he was alone.
Van Iveren told the paper that it was not nearly that dramatic and that he left as soon as he realised his mistake. “Now I feel stupid,” he said.
Van Iveren, who has been charged with trespassing, property damage and disorderly conduct while using a dangerous weapon, could face up to 33 months in jail.
“All of them are going to be dismissed,” he predicted. “They have to. This was all just a big mistake.” — AFP