They took cuffing season a little too literally.
Katherine Johnstone met her future husband, Michale Johnstone, when she called the cops on him after he drunkenly stumbled into her house through an unlocked door and passed out on her couch. Seven years later, they’re married with a child.
“We laugh and can’t believe that this is how we met and now have got married and have a family. People bring it up all the time,” Katherine told Kennedy News.
“It’s a beautiful story and silly because it’s so unique. I wouldn’t change a thing and I think it makes our love even stronger.”
The then-22-year-old sauntered home that fateful night — err, morning — after partying “too hard,” strolling through her unlocked front door only to see the anonymous man snoring on her sofa.
“I asked my sister not to lock the door when I went out as I was coming home late, but I partied too hard and ended up coming home at 8 a.m. the next morning,” recalled Katherine, from Highland Falls, New York.
“I opened my front door and I found this guy sleeping on our couch with a blanket over him. He was snoring and had taken his shoes off.”
Upon realizing he was a stranger, Katherine, now 29, and her sister ran outside and called the police, who escorted Michael out of the house.
Michael, now 35, believed he was snoozing on a co-worker’s couch. But before realizing it was an innocent accident, Katherine pursued second-degree trespassing charges and his mugshot was splattered across local newsstands.
“I’d reached out to one of my co-workers to sleep in his house, which was odd because his house wasn’t far from mine,” Michael, from Washington. New Hampshire, explained.
“What I think happened was I thought I was going to his house but the reality is I ended up at Katherine’s and fell asleep on her sofa.”
The charges, however, were dropped once Michael explained his late-night faux pas, showing up on her doorstep with flowers and a heartfelt apology and, unbeknownst to either of them, meeting his future in-laws.
“I think they appreciated the apology. Her dad said it could have happened to anyone. They just wanted to make sure I was sincere about it,” Michael said.
“This was the first time I met her parents so it’s a pretty wild icebreaker.”
But it wasn’t until Katherine and her then-beau called it quits that Michael could make a move after following each other online and communicating solely through casual post likes.
The unlikely lovebirds began dating after Michael invited Katherine to a Fourth of July party, and in December 2020, he popped the question in Central Park — a fairytale ending to what could have been a nightmare.
“A lot of people know the story and we’re married with a kid now so it’s now looked at without any negative connotations but at the time it could have been,” said Michael, who complimented his wife as a “great mom” who “brings out the best” in him.
The pair got hitched in 2022 and welcomed their daughter, Mila Johnstone, in February this year.
“My husband is a great man and I’m very lucky to have him,” Katherine said. “We’re very lucky to have each other.”