Hartland Woman Was 'Never Nervous' After Finding Bullet Hole in Home

For Marjorie Line, hearing the sounds of gunshots from the rural areas surrounding her home is pretty typical for this time of year, but after finding a bullet hole in the wall of her home, the longtime Hartland resident admitted to being a little shocked.

Walking into her family room on Sunday afternoon where she had been home all day, Line says she first saw a picture lying on the ground and had assumed her cat was the culprit.

“So then I look in the front room and it is absolutely covered in these white pebbles and yellow stringy looking stuff that I just didn’t recognize at first and it was everywhere,” Line said. 

The yellow “stringy stuff” turned out to be insulation from her walls where the bullet travelled through into Line’s bedroom.

Line says police told her the bullet traveled about 40 feet before hitting the wall in her bedroom and falling to the floor.

After the initial shock of discovering the bullet hole, Line says she was never nervous and assumed the bullet was a stray from someone’s target practice earlier in the day. 

“I am not upset by it at all except that I have to repair my wall,” she said. “I know it was an accident. I know it wasn’t intentional.”

After calling 911, Line says she waited three hours for an officer to respond. Although she says her two sons were upset about the wait and nervous for their mother, Line says she understood the situation.

“They (police) had accidents and I’m not mad about that,” she said. “My boys are, but I’m not.”

Calling her two adult sons a “little overprotective,” Line says she did call 911 again after an hour had passed, but says she knows at least one or both of her sons had called, as well.

According to Livingston County Sheriff Bob Bezotte, police were responding to a personal injury accident that had taken place at 4:17 p.m., just minutes before Line’s 911 call came in.

Bezotte said personal injury accidents take priority and it was determined by dispatch that there were no suspects at Line’s home and the bullet may have been a stray, so it was considered a low priority call. 

“I agree with the complaint that it’s unfortunate that it took three hours, but when I looked at everything, I can understand how it happened,” Bezotte said. 

Bezotte also stressed the need to practice good safety measures when using firearms and during target practice and use “common sense” by not firing where there are houses or in populated areas.

“The obvious is to make sure you know what you’re shooting at and to have a proper background to stop any bullets,” he said. “In this particular situation, it goes through a house and fortunately no one was injured or killed.”