Gadsden police officers responding to an attempted break-in arrested an armed Guntersville man after he hid in the property owner’s vehicle.

Police were called at about 8 p.m. Friday to a home on Scenic Drive, where the resident told them a man showed up on his back porch, beating on the door, yelling to be let in. The man kicked the door and it swung open, but the resident was able to force it closed. The resident went to get his gun and call police.

The intruder went to the front door and tried to get in, then went back to the back door and started beating and kicking it again.

Sgt. Jerome Mitchell arrived on the scene, but the man was nowhere in sight. The resident said he last saw the man in the back yard, and that he might have gone into the woods or toward a neighbor’s house.

Mitchell and several other officers searched around the residence and in both garages, and couldn’t find the man.

Officers began to search the wood line and neighbor’s yard. As Mitchell rounded the corner to join them he found the 29-year-old man, getting out of the resident’s vehicle where he’d apparently been hiding.

The man ignored officers’ commands to come to them and started to get back in the Honda Accord and close the door. Mitchell was able to push the door open, grab the man’s arm and pull him out of the car, according to the police report.

As he pulled him out, Mitchell saw the man raise his right arm and initially believed he was trying to keep from being pulled from the car. However, he discovered that the man had a loaded Charter Arms .38-caliber SPL pistol in his hand, which he briefly pointed at Mitchell before dropping it onto the car seat.

Other officers helped as the man resisted being handcuffed, and he was taken into custody.

According to the report, he appeared to be under the influence of some type of narcotic, and officers couldn’t determine how he got to the residence on Scenic Drive. The resident did not know the man, and didn’t believe anything was taken from his car.

The man was arrested for public intoxication, resisting arrest, obstructing governmental operations, disorderly conduct and unlawful breaking and entering a vehicle.