An elderly Salt Lake City woman woke up in the middle of the night to let her dog out. Minutes later, she was standing in her own living room, face to face with a stranger holding an axe — a man who would later tell police he had been “watching and loving” her from afar for six months.

According to Salt Lake City police, 34-year-old Chadwell Clement Smith is now behind bars after allegedly breaking into the woman’s apartment around 2 a.m. and attempting what he described as a romantic overture.

It unfolded like something out of a nightmare.

The woman told police she had gotten up to use the bathroom and let her dog outside. She had reportedly left her front door slightly open. While she was in the bathroom, she heard someone say “hello” from the doorway.

When she stepped out, she allegedly found Smith standing inside her apartment — holding an axe.

Police say he had also brought a knife into the home but had placed it on top of her refrigerator.

When officers later questioned him, Smith reportedly admitted that he saw the open door and entered, believing, as the police report described it, that “this was his shot.”

Instead of fleeing when confronted, Smith allegedly embraced the woman. According to the report, he hugged her, instructed her to sit down, and began rubbing her legs and feet — even as she protested and told him to stop.

At some point, he reportedly told her he had been “watching and loving her” for half a year and that he wanted to ask her on a date. He also allegedly told her he was going to give her “the time of her life.”

The woman, confronted by a shirtless stranger armed with weapons in the middle of the night, complied long enough for police to arrive.

At one point during the intrusion, Smith allegedly went into her bathroom and took a shower.

When officers responded to the urgent welfare check and entered the apartment, they reportedly found Smith lounging shirtless in the woman’s bed.

Police say Smith laid out what he described as an elaborate dating plan.

“He told me that his intention was to take her out on a date and to get an Uber up near the University of Utah underneath a tree and was intending on kissing her there and ‘feeling out’ the situation and informed me that he would want to have sex with the victim prior to a supposed marriage,” the arresting officer wrote in the report cited by ABC4.

Later, Smith reportedly admitted he had actually planned to take the woman to an underground construction site instead.

Authorities also asked him why he would enter someone’s home at night carrying an axe and knife. Smith allegedly claimed he carried the weapons for self-defense.

Police say they believe the situation could have escalated had officers not arrived when they did.

Smith was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, burglary, possession of a controlled substance, and prohibited possession of a dangerous weapon, according to reports from Fox13 and ABC4. He is being held without bail at the Salt Lake County Jail.