Arrow flies through elderly couple’s house

When Priscilla Muller heard the loud crash through her bedroom window, she thought it was an earthquake, or maybe even a squirrel. What she found was a 2 1/2-foot carbon-fiber arrow lodged in the wall above her bed.

At first, she and her husband didn’t know what caused the sound. They found broken glass on the floor near her window, but nothing else appeared amiss.

It was only after the 79-year-old turned off her computer and began to make her bed for the night that she noticed a plastic feather on her comforter and looked up to find the arrow in the wall.

“I was scared and didn’t know why this happened,” Muller said of the Jan. 28 incident. “Nothing like this has ever happened before.”

Burbank police were at the couple’s home in the 700 block of North Buena Vista Street in west Burbank for hours, but could not confirm who shot the arrow or why.

The arrow — made from wood with a carbon-fiber finish — appeared to have originated from next door, where it first pierced through a fiberglass panel separating the two properties before busting a 3-inch hole in the window and finding a home in Muller’s wall.

Priscilla and her husband, Andras, have lived in their home since 1984.

“From what we can tell, it does not appear the arrow was shot with a malicious intent,” said Det. Martha Jimenez. “But the case is still being investigated.”

The owner of the home next door could not be reached, and contact could not be made with the residents of the house.

Meanwhile, the Mullers, who survive on a single Social Security check between the two of them, said they don’t have the funds to repair the window or the wall and fear their homeowner’s insurance premium will rise if they report the incident.

For now, the window and wall will remain broken until someone is held responsible, they said.

“My thought was just to have a nice home in my older age and be comfortable,” said Priscilla Muller, who has had difficulty sleeping since the incident. “But this is ridiculous.”

Andras Muller has his own fears about what could fly through their fence or wall next, and said his wife was lucky not to be injured or killed by the arrow whizzing through her room.

“Something is going on here, and it just needs to stop,” he said.