A WIFE has revealed she met her husband after calling the cops when he staggered into her home drunk and fell asleep on the sofa – now they've been married for a year and have a baby.
Katherine Johnstone came home from a night out, having asked her sister to leave the front door unlocked when she discovered a bloke fast asleep on the living room couch in 2016.
The horrified 22-year-old who'd "partied too hard" and ended up only rolling home at 8 am crept up to the snoring intruder, trying to work out who he was by using her phone's flashlight.
After establishing he wasn't her sister's friend, the nervous pair fled their family home and called the police, who raced over within minutes.
Cops woke the bemused man up and escorted him from the building, to the sisters' relief.
Katherine, now 29, was asked to check for any missing or broken items, and despite not seeing any obvious signs of damage, the sisters agreed to press charges still to be safe.
The man, identified as Michael Johnstone, was charged with second-degree trespassing, and a mugshot of him was printed in the local newspaper for the whole town to see.
Red-faced Johnstone, now 35, believed he'd crashed on a work colleague's couch after a night out, and once Katherine realized it was an innocent mistake, she dropped the charges.
A sheepish Johnstone later returned to her house with a letter and flowers to apologize to the entire family for the stress he caused, unknowingly meeting his in-laws for the first time.
The pair soon became friends, and after a year of friendship, they started dating.
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In 2020, he popped the question before they wedded in May 2022, welcoming their baby Mila in February.
Katherine, from Highland Falls, New York, told The U.S. Sun: "We laugh and can't believe that this is how we met and now have got married and have a family. People bring it up all the time.
"It's a beautiful story and silly because it's so unique. I wouldn't change a thing, and I think it makes our love even stronger.
"My husband is a great man, and I'm very lucky to have him. We're very lucky to have each other."
The elementary school counselor had asked her sister to leave the door unlocked so she could get in after a night out on May 8, 2016, when she unknowingly first met her husband.
Katherine said: "I asked my sister not to lock the door when I went out as I was coming home late, but I partied too hard and ended up coming home at 8 am the next morning.
"I opened my front door, and I found this guy sleeping on our couch with a blanket over him. He was snoring and had taken his shoes off.
"At first, I thought he was my sister's friend. I got my flashlight up on my phone and was putting it to his face to try and work out who he was.
"I woke up my sister, but she said she didn't have anyone over, and there shouldn't be anyone on the couch.
"When we realized neither of us knew him, we both ran outside our house and called the cops and told them there was a random man on our couch," Katherine recalled
"I was nervous as I didn't know who he was and what his intentions were, but he was just peacefully sleeping.
"My biggest concern was just to get me and my sister out of the house and make sure we were safe.
"The cops showed up right away and brought him outside, and just to be safe, I pressed charges against him, and he got arrested and taken to the police station," she added.
Katherine, who lives near a military academy, said she initially thought Johnstone was a cadet who had drunkenly wandered into her house after going to a nearby bar recruits like to party in.
But after telling pals about the odd encounter, Katherine soon realized she had mutual friends with Johnstone and, after being asked by one of his co-workers, dropped the charges against him.
Katherine said: "The following day I was telling my friends what happened and everyone thought it was very funny.
"One of my friends said they knew him, and then other people started to tell me that they were friends with him and he was a good guy and asked us to drop the charges against him.
"After this, I called the county court and spoke to the prosecutor, and they had the charges dropped, but he still had to do 50 hours of community service."
After she dropped the charges, Katherine said Johnstone turned up at her house with flowers and a handwritten note to apologize to her family for the stress he had caused.
It was then Katherine says she realized Johnstone's trespassing was an innocent mistake and he wasn't a bad person.
Katherine said: "He wanted to apologize to my family about what he had done.
"He wrote a letter to my family and brought us flowers and really wanted to show that he had made an honest mistake and this wasn't who he was."
After his heartfelt apology, the pair added each other on social media.
They began liking each other's posts, but because she had a boyfriend at the time, their communication went no further.
It was only when she broke up with her partner, and Johnstone invited her to a Fourth of July party that the pair began dating a year later.
On December 30, 2020, Johnstone popped the question in Central Park before they tied the knot on May 14, 2022, and welcomed their first child.
Johnstone said what started as a scary situation worked out well.
Johnstone, originally from New Hampshire, said: "I was very scared of what had happened.
"I heard walkie-talkies over me before waking up, and I quickly realized this wasn't a good situation.
"Being woken by police and being unsure of where you are is never a good sign. I had gone out with my co-workers, and I don't usually drink like I did that night.
"I'd reached out to one of my co-workers to sleep in his house, which was odd because his house wasn't far from mine.
"What I think happened was I thought I was going to his house, but the reality is I ended up at Katherine's and fell asleep on her sofa.
"This is the only time I have ever been arrested. At the time, I was in a mass paranoid state and didn't want it to affect my job.
"A lot of people know the story, and we're married with a kid now, so it's now looked at without any negative connotations, but at the time it could have been."
Meeting his future in-laws for the first time while apologizing for accidental trespassing is something Johnstone describes as a "wild icebreaker."
Johnstone said: "After what had happened, I got Katherine's number off a friend as I wanted to talk to her family to tell them it was a big misunderstanding and I didn't mean anything about it.
"I met with her whole family and apologized and gave them a handwritten note and flowers.
"I think they appreciated the apology. Her dad said it could have happened to anyone. They just wanted to make sure I was sincere about it.
"This was the first time I met her parents, so it's a pretty wild icebreaker.
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"Our wedding was a great day. A lot of the people that came had been there from the start of our story – it was a full-circle moment.
"As a life partner, Katherine always brings out the best in me, and she's a great mum."
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