A young woman woke up the other night to find a half-naked menacing stranger standing in her bedroom, hissing, growling and smacking her around in her bed while he bit her repeatedly. The perpetrator was one Lyle Monroe Bensley, 500 years-old, of Galveston. And he is a vampire.

Well, at least that’s what Lyle says. His (obviously forged) day-walker identification says that he’s only 19 – but Lyle was quite adamantly claiming otherwise. "I'm a vampire, and I've been alive for over 500 years," Bensley told police as they tried to restrain him.

The woman (who asked that her name not be released) was able to flee her captor after he dragged her out of her apartment. She jumped into a car being driven by a neighbor and sped away. Bensley didn’t exactly leave the scene either. When police arrived they found him nearby shrieking and growling. He was apprehended a short time later after a brief chase.

"He was begging us to restrain him because he didn't want to kill us," Galveston Officer Daniel Erickson said. "He said he needed to feed."

Personnel on the scene determined that Lyle did not appear to be under the influence of any drugs or alcohol. Although no comment was made to the possibility of this being the result of severe hunger pains. He was placed on a mental health hold and his bond was set at $40,000 - paltry sum of money for someone with five centuries to save up, no doubt.