Saskatoon man fends off hatchet-wielding intruder with umbrella, knife

When 73-year-old Dale Sommerfeldt heard a loud smash as he sat in his living room watching a football game Friday night, he thought one of his cats had knocked something over.

But the source of the sound turned out to be something much more menacing.

“I got up to look, and I was met a few feet from the door by a masked man with a hoodie on, holding a hatchet over his head,” Sommerfeldt recalled, speaking to 650 CKOM from his Mackie Crescent home.

Sommerfeldt said the intruder used the hatchet to smash a window beside the front door, then reached inside to unlock it.

Dale Sommerfeldt, 73, used a kitchen knife and umbrella to fend off a hatchet-wielding intruder last week. (Lara Fominoff/650 CKOM)

Calling it “a bit scary,” Sommerfeldt said he began yelling at the masked man to get out of his home. But the intruder, he said, was just focused on getting to the kitchen and rifling through all of the drawers and cupboards, knocking things off shelves and tipping over chairs in the process.

Sommerfeldt said the man seemed “out of it,” and Sommerfeldt speculated the man was high on drugs.

“The only thing he said to me was ‘Where’s the money? Where’s the money?’ ” Sommerfeldt said.

“We did have a small cash box in the cupboard with some change in it. He found that and picked it up.”

While the man was searching through drawers, Sommerfeldt said he told his wife to call 911. He then grabbed a knife from his knife block and went to the front door where he further armed himself with a large, black umbrella.

Sommerfeldt said that after several minutes of trying to push the intruder out of his kitchen and through the front door, he heard police sirens approaching. That’s when the masked man grabbed a purse and took off running.

“I pointed (police) in the direction he had left,” Sommerfeldt added.

Police said the intruder suffered “minor injuries” during the struggle. Neither Sommerfeldt nor his wife were hurt, but they didn’t get a good sleep that night.

“It wasn’t a very comfortable night, that’s for sure,” Sommerfeldt said.

According to Saskatoon police, the 31-year-old intruder was found and arrested a short distance away. He’s been charged with breaking and entering, wearing a disguise to commit a crime, and breach of conditions.

Since the incident, Sommerfeldt said the window has been boarded up, and he’s going to get rid of the glass. He’s also urging people to keep their homes as secure as possible.

Jokingly, Sommerfeldt said his son has since given him a bigger umbrella as gift, telling him “You need this.”