A New Jersey man was busted inside Taylor Swift‘s beachfront home — and told cops he had taken his shoes off “to be polite,” officials said.
Westerly police officers responding to a phone tip of a man jumping the fence outside the Rhode Island beach house on Aug 30 found Richard Joseph McEwan, 26.
Upon spotting the officers, McEwan took off running — but was quickly nabbed and charged with breaking and entering and willful trespassing, Westerly Police Chief Shawn Lacey confirmed.
“This was an unusual case in the sense that we found him inside the house,” Lacey told the Westerly Sun. “We’ve dealt with a number of complaints at the home since it was purchased (by Swift), but this is the first I can recall of someone actually making it into the house.”
An investigation determined that McEwan, of Milford, NJ, had driven to Rhode Island earlier that day and was wandering the house “to find Taylor,” Lacey said.
Lacey said McEwan had taken off his shoes at the door before hunting for the famous singer, who wasn’t home.
“A pair of orange shoes were found at the doorway where he broke in. When officers asked him why he wasn’t wearing any, he told them ‘I was always taught that when you go into someone’s home, you have to take your shoes off,'” Lacey told the Sun. “He said he did it because it was polite.”
The sock-footed McEwan did not have any weapons, Lacey said.