The terrifying photo that shows a woman hiding on the roof to escape an intruder.

By SHAUNA ANDERSON

An actress has lived out a real life horror movie after an intruder who had broken into her house followed her out onto the roof and appeared behind her as she hid on an eave.

A neighbour captured the moment on camera the young woman had to decide whether to stay or to jump from the second storey roof.

Melora Rivera, who appeared in the movie, Sparkle, was in bed when she heard a man break into her LA home.

She ran to the roof, wearing only a shirt and grabbing her mobile phone on the way.

She told CBS that she crawled out of a window and hid, terrified in an eave of her roof while she phoned police.

“He managed to break one of these panels and reach in to unlock the door,” Rivera said. “Once I saw him in the house, I knew that we both couldn’t be there. I knew that I didn’t want to have a confrontation with him of any sort, you know, not knowing what his intention was.”

The man, later identified to be a homeless man named Christian Hicks followed her through the window.

“The drop is, I would guess, more than 20 feet,” Rivera said. “So there was no safely jumping off the roof or coming down from the roof at that point.”

The Daily Mail reports an eyewitness account from Alex Thompson, who runs a neighbourhood watch website Venice311.org.

“I heard a call come out for a burglary, a burglar had entered a home. I was on my way to the bank and the address was on the way so I went down there.

As I come around the corner and I look up and there’s this half naked girl cowering underneath the awning and the police have their guns drawn.

I stood there with some other residents and we thought she was the burglar up on the roof not listening to the officers’ commands.

I took my camera phone out and started taking pictures, then all of a sudden this horrifying dark figure pops up on the other side of the roof and everybody on the other side of the street was like, ‘oh no’, it was the scariest Jack in the box, freak show, weird situation.

At that point we realize he’s the burglar and the girl is the victim freaking out. The cops keep him at bay and get the girl safely off the roof and the guy down and in cuffs.”

The moment that Hicks appeared from the other side of the roof was captured by several neighbours. The photo itself is chilling.

The fire department that had arrived at the scene soon helped the young actress down from the roof with ladders and police encouraged Hicks to surrender.

CBS reports that Hicks has been held on bail and charged with burglary. Meanwhile Rivera says the area’s homelessness is an increasing problem.

“I think it’s very obvious for most of us who live around here, when someone seems to be suffering from a mental illness, and to continue to let these people walk around without offering them assistance, to protect them and us. That, I think, is the heart of the problem.”
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