A Chilliwack River Valley senior spent New Year's Day trying to quiet her nerves after a midday nap was sharply interrupted by the sound of a bullet crashing into the bedroom window.

Still a little tired after watching the preceding evening's celebrations on TV in her Slesse Park rancher, Audrey-Ann Ashley, 68, dozed off to sleep with a book just before noon. She wasn't asleep long, though, when she was sharply awoken by a loud sound.

"I thought it was the end of the world," she said. "It was like a bomb and it was so close. It was so loud."

Ashley pulled back her blinds and found herself looking at the shattered glass of her bedroom sliding door. On the other side of the double-paned window she found a small bullet hole.

Shocked, Ashley called her neighbours. Her partner was there and told Ashley, "I heard the shot. It was awful close."

She replied: "Close? Yeah, it came through the window."

Ashley said that, while she had not heard any shooting preceding the incident, her neighbours reported hearing gunfire-apparently from hunters- earlier in the day.

"There were people walking around at the time that also heard the shots."

Ashley called the police and an RCMP forensic unit found a bullet that had fallen between the two pieces of glass. After piercing the exterior pane, the bullet had not had enough momentum to break through the interior glass.

Mounties say the shooting was not targeted and looks to be accidental. "The bullet possibly came from a nearby wooded area," RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Tammy Hollingsworth said.

The prospect of a stray bullet flying across her yard has rattled Ashley.

"I was very upset. I'm still very upset," she told the Times. "What if one of my little dogs had been out there?"

And the fact that a bullet ended up in her window means that whoever was holding the gun should have been taking more care and should have been somewhere else. "That's shooting too close to a residential area," Ashley said.

tolsen@chilliwacktimes.com