911 caller reports woman who said she was 'playing mermaid' in Vilano Beach house

Action News Jax obtained the 911 calls made after neighbors in a gated Vilano Beach community said a woman was making her way into waterfront property homes on different occasions.

“It is a gated community,” the 911 caller said. “I don’t know how she got in here.”

Investigators said the intruder was Tonya Gerlach.

According to the arrest report, Gerlach told investigators she was playing "mermaid" and swam up to the property.

Gerlach said she found a set of keys to the house and went inside where she began to “pretend to live there.”

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That’s when Gerlach was met by the 911 caller.

“She just came into the house and was wandering around saying she works here but we’ve never hired her," the caller said. "I called my husband ‘cause she said she was hired to water the plants but she was upstairs in the kitchen and when I kept asking who she worked for and why she was here, nothing added up and my husband said to ask her to leave and to call the police.”

Gerlach was arrested for residential burglary.

The 911 caller said Gerlach has been seen in the neighborhood before.

“My neighbor says he has seen her on security cameras at his house next door around 2 in the morning,” the caller said.

Cox Media Group