SAN DIEGO — A night out with friends took a scary turn just after midnight Monday at the Marriott Marina. A man worked his way past a locked fence and onto a boat where two girls were hiding.
They told us he'd followed one girl to her car and when she sped away, he changed course toward the gated Marina entrance and the other two.
"So we ran to the boat and locked all the doors," one of the girls said.
The pair propped a chair against the door handle, as well, and dialed 9-1-1.
That distress call later angered her father. "So they put 'em on hold and they sat there for two minutes while he's walking around trying to figure out where they are on the boat," the father said.
Neither he nor his daughter wanted their names revealed. "We heard footsteps on the boat; extremely freaked out," he said.
The man, described as a transient, managed to get their door open, and barged in. She said he grabbed her wrist but she pulled away briefly.
"He was coming closer to me and my friend and we grabbed an antique sword on the wall and used it in self defense," she said.
The girls screamed and that's when a neighbor from a nearby boat, along with security officers he'd notified, came to the rescue.
Jason Miller is a retired enlisted U. S. Army soldier. "When I came around the corner, he had the sword in his hand, he was looking to get off the boat and I confronted him and disarmed him," Miller said.
No one had been hurt. Miller talked him down.
"Just got aggressive with him and I think it scared him; he dropped the sword and got down on the ground and we kept him there till police arrived," Miller said.
San Diego Harbor Police arrested the man and hauled him off to jail.
Miller said the girls were very brave. "The courage it took them to create a defensive position; If they hadn't screamed, I wouldn't have known which boat to get on," Miller said.
One of the girls admits being frightened. "Especially when he grabbed my wrist, I thought this was the end; I'm not going to get out of this," she said.
Dad, meanwhile, voiced gratitude and relief. "As a father, I'm amazingly thankful; 'cause I could have been called this morning to identify a different situation," he said.
The man in custody was not identified, he's facing potential charges of burglary and false imprisonment.
The girls are safe and secure and plan to be very watchful in the future.
WATCH RELATED: Ocean Beach man attacked by group of homeless people in front of Hodad's speaks out (Nov. 2022).
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