Babysitter looking for ‘monster’ under the bed comes face-to-face with intruder

BARTON COUNTY, Kan. (TCN) — A horror story trope came true this week when a babysitter looking under a child’s bed for a “monster” discovered a man hiding there.

According to the Barton County Sheriff’s Office, on Monday, March 24, at 10:30 p.m., deputies responded to a disturbance call on the 2000 block of Patton Road and spoke with the babysitter at the scene. She reportedly told deputies that as she was tucking the children into bed, one of them “complained there was a ‘monster’ under the bed.”

The babysitter reportedly wanted to show them that it was all clear, but when she did, she encountered the male suspect, Martin Villalobos Jr. The babysitter and Villalobos got into an altercation, and Villalobos allegedly knocked over the babysitter and one of the children. Villalobos fled the home before deputies arrived.

The sheriff’s office said Villalobos used to live in the residence, but he had a protection from abuse order against him and was not allowed on the property. Deputies searched for Villalobos that night but could not find him. They located him the next day on the same block, and he fled from law enforcement on foot. Deputies captured him and arrested him for aggravated kidnapping, aggravated burglary, aggravated battery, child endangerment, obstruction of a law enforcement officer, and violation of a protection from abuse order.

Court records show he was charged March 12 with criminal threat causing terror and domestic battery relating to an incident from January. He was charged in April 2024 with domestic battery as well. He allegedly violated the protective order again in February.

Villalobos is being held in the Barton County Jail with bond set at $500,000.

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