'Lucky I don't kill you': Woman shot at repairman for charging $70 service fee to fix dryer

A 45-year-old Indiana woman will spend a decade behind bars for shooting at a repairman she called to look at her dryer — telling the man she was going to "pop a cap" in him after learning that he charged a $70 fee.

Marion County Superior Judge Charles F. Miller on Monday sentenced Reba LaJoy Wilson to serve 10 years in a state correctional facility over the incident, court records show.

Miller handed down the sentence after Wilson pleaded guilty to one count each of intimidation with the use of a deadly weapon and unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon. In exchange for her plea, prosecutors agreed to drop additional charges of criminal confinement, criminal recklessness, and pointing a firearm at another.

The sentence stems from a confrontation at Wilson's Indianapolis home in March 2024, when self-employed appliance repair technician Nathaniel Baird arrived to diagnose a clothes dryer that was not heating, Indianapolis NBC affiliate WTHR reported.

After determining the problem, Baird told Wilson she owed the standard $70 house-call fee. But Wilson refused to pay, reportedly claiming that the appliance was still under warranty.

"She said, 'I don't want to pay that.' I said, 'Well, I don't work for free,'" Baird told the station. "So, I went to leave, and she pointed a gun at me right in the front of her house and forced me to stay there and said, 'You're going to fix my dryer.'"

Wilson blocked the front door while pointing a black and silver handgun at Baird, who pretended to get back to work before making a run for the back door, according to a report from Indianapolis ABC affiliate WRTV. As he fled, Wilson fired a shot in his direction while shouting, "You're lucky I don't kill you."

Baird told WTHR he never looked back at Wilson, but "heard one shot" before she yelled "I'll pop a cap in your a—!"

He escaped to his truck and called 911.

Investigators later obtained a search warrant for the home, where they recovered a black and silver Smith & Wesson handgun hidden beneath a couch and found a spent shell casing resting on top of a broken dryer door in the kitchen, Indianapolis CW affiliate WISH reported.

When she encountered police outside her residence, Wilson initially denied that anything untoward had taken place.

During Monday's sentencing hearing, Wilson asked the court to impose home detention instead of prison, telling the judge she suffers from multiple sclerosis and needs access to proper medical care, WTHR reported.

The judge declined, reportedly describing Wilson as "unworthy" of community corrections. Miller emphasized that Wilson had eight prior convictions and that she had been wanted on an outstanding warrant for nearly a year before her arrest.

The post 'I'll pop a cap in your a—!': Woman shot at repairman for charging $70 service fee to fix dryer first appeared on Law & Crime.