SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A Rancho Bernardo man got the shock of his life while sitting in his bedroom when a high-velocity golf ball ripped through his window and struck him.
“Fifteen minutes before, I turned off my air conditioning and opened my bedroom window,” said Terry O’Day.
Early Thursday morning, just before 1 a.m., O’Day, a diabetic, was sitting in the bedroom of his home in the Oaks North 55+ community, preparing to inject himself with insulin.
“I'm injecting it in my leg. That’s when I heard a loud bang, a gunshot, and then I got hit in the lower back with something,” said O’Day. “An intense, stinging pain.”
A stunned O’Day looked and saw a golf ball on his pillow and a tear in his screen.
“Looks like a little cannonball came through the screen,” said O’Day.
While there is a golf course a block away, O’Day said it didn't come from there.
“If you look at the trajectory, it went from the street to the window, before it hit me in the back,” said O’Day.
Oday believes it could have been shot from a golf ball launcher, something that can be attached to a gun, like an AR-15, and shot from more than 400 yards.
It turns out, O’Day wasn't the only one being targeted that morning.
Two minutes prior and a few blocks away, a 70-year-old woman was sleeping in her bedroom when a golf ball flew through her bedroom window, smashing the glass.
That woman told ABC 10News she heard a car driving off.
After posting his incident on the Nextdoor app, O’Day learned that five other neighbors have reported similar incidents in the past few months.
“It's a disaster waiting to happen. If I had been sleeping, it would have hit me in the face, possibly my eye,” said O’Day.
O'Day worries most for his senior neighbors.
“When they experience something like this, it can be devastating. Anxiety, stress, even a heart attack,” said O’Day.
O'Day said officers did collect evidence, including the golf ball.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to call San Diego Police at 619-531-2000.
