Please help with legal question involving large naked autistic man.
landlord tenant attorney Ohio Aug 10, 2026
Location: Lake County, Ohio We've lived in our home incident-free for the 22 years we've owned it. We're in a private neighborhood in Lake County, Ohio. About a handful of houses down the street on the opposite side, there's an autistic man. Now that he's grown (late 20's, I remember when we bought our house, seeing him, and he was maybe 7 ish back then) he keeps wandering around totally naked. He is a large man, about 6 ft plus, and around 400 pounds, so I am afraid to approach him. My husband and I are both very short and WAY smaller than this man. I have a lot of pretty lights outside of my home lining my property, so I feel like he's attracted to the lights, maybe. When I see him in my front yard, like last night, I called 911 and had the police intervene. He was maybe two feet from my front door staring in my front window, naked, playing with my sprinkler that was on, and looking at my outdoor lights. My question is, I have a dog that's extremely friendly with us but VERY reactive to strangers. It's why we're responsible and keep him away from anyone he doesn't know. He's an Australian Shepherd and Border Collie mix, not sure if that's important. There are times we're doing things and have the front door unlocked. We've been remodeling so we're in and out of the front a lot carrying stuff in/out, and there's just times we don't always lock the front door. If this large naked, autistic, non verbal (all he does is scream) man walks in our house by getting past us due to his size or us just not being in the front area at the time and noticing, and our dog reacts and bites him, can naked man's family sue us? I understand autism is a tough area for a lot of people, but I don't want this huge naked 400 pound 6 foot man walking in my house. I'm not taking down my lighting. We just did it recently and I spent a ton of money on it, making it look beautiful. Even if his intentions are not entering to rob, steal, harm, etc., as he's profoundly autistic and doesn't understand "go home," am I at risk of getting sued over this man? I also don't want my dog getting in trouble/put down for biting an intruder, even if his intentions weren't harm. Thanks for any input, I'm just a little freaked out.
