NTA. That woman is lucky she's not seriously injured or more. The husband's reaction was not wrong at all. She's a grown woman and does pranks like a child and then cries when it backfires

Who TF sneaks up on a MILITARY VETERAN of all people!??!!? She's lucky it wasn't far, far worse. It's a normal reflex for anyone to start fighting if someone attacks them in the dark, and a veteran is trained to do it very effectively. Sometimes you cannot know people's triggers and tripping them is an accident, but this was utterly stupid on this woman's part. Either she has a single-digit IQ or she was hoping to start some serious drama, possibly to break her fiance's ties with his family. Most people figure out in their teens that pranks are rarely funny and don't often have good outcomes. I'm basically an overgrown child and I know that! There are harmless ways to oscillate the excrement, but pranks are not one of them.

When scared/startled, there is a fight or flight response, it is an involuntary reflex. Your husband would not have had time in that instant to 1. Figure out it was her. 2. Figure out she meant no harm. 3. Make a plan to personally assault her. It is fight or flight. If they were in an enclosed space(garage). The instantaneous reaction was to fight. The word there is reaction. People have differing levels of startle reflex. One should not assume that everyone has the same level of startle reflex as you . To come onto someone's home and scare/startle them for fun, is very foolish. I have a HUGE startle reflex. Sometimes a simple greeting from my husband, can bring a very "LARGE" response. It takes me an hour to calm down the adrenaline. Thus I do NOT like being scared AT ALL. She needs to apologize for all her assumptions .

Two months ago, I was leaving the grocery store and walking across the parking lot. My neighbor (also shopping , I didn't see him) thought it would be funny to sneak up behind me and grab me at the waist with both hands and go "boo"... Maybe he thought he was being playful. I had no idea who it was and I elbowed as hard as I could behind me, caught him in the gut, and he fell to his knees. I was quite annoyed when I saw who it was, and happy I didn't turn and kick him, too. I didn't apologize but I did help him up and warn him never to do that again. He said "it was just a joke, it was just a joke."

People HAVE been killed over pranks! It is incredibly stupid to prank someone like this. The brain goes into flight or fight mode, and the part of the brain that responds is instinctual, before your "thinking" brain gets a chance to catch up. People have shot their own loved ones, thinking it was an intruder. She needs to take responsibility for the prank.

I'm a 60 year old grandma, and if you prank me like that you will get hurt. Not funny in any way. OP and her husband are NTA but brother and future SIL are most definitely. NC all the way.

Reverse the genders in this story and we'd have a whole different ballgame on our hands where the woman would've reported the man for assault when he tried to scare her and she fought back, and the police would've sided with the woman for being 'assaulted'. The fiance is a dangerous idiot, brother needs to dump her before she starts making all kinds of accusations against different people, she clearly has a victim complex with no personal accountability for her actions, and doesn't look like the brother will ever hold her accountable for her nonsense. Toxic woman.

My college roommate jump scared me and she ended up with a pretty bad back injury. Her boyfriend’s friend jump scared me at a Halloween party they were having and got a swift kick in the family jewels for his trouble. I can’t believe whole a*s adults think jump scaring someone is funny. OP needs to appreciate the legal ramifications the fiancée’s allegations can have on her life and cut contact immediately. I’d even consult with a lawyer to make sure this is handled appropriately if it grows legs.

When doing a prank like that it's only a matter of time before you run into the wrong person. People react very unpredictably when in that snap moment they think they're in danger, and sometimes with physical force. That's the risk you take when doing these pranks. Not only is it not funny, it's stupid.

That woman is immature and maybe mentally unstable. Who ambushes their HOST, accuses them of assault then expects to be allowed to stay. Her reaction to being called out on her BS was like a child being caught in lie. Also, the only 'dark' person here is her. She wanted to humiliate and frighten the OPs husband IN HIS HOME. She wanted to be able to laugh at him after making him feel unsafe. She was a guest in the OPs house and wanted to degrade the OPs husband! WTF is wrong with her?! Don't even get me started on the spineless brother that wanted his sister to invalidate her husbands feeling and legitimate concerns for his safety and reputation just to make his manipulative GF feel less like the idiot she is. I'd worry about my sibling in a relationship like this, but he's an adult and has clearly made his bed. The OPs only real option is to ban that woman from her home and life and talk to her parents/family about what happened. Maybe someone else can get through to the brother that he's about to marry crazy.

She is lucky she didn't get her teeth rifled down her throat.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. NTA.

Yesterday I scared the ffing s**t out of a family friend; this guy is buff and I’m a woman. I thought he heard me coming up the stairs, so I grabbed him from behind and growled (as a joke), he was ready to punch. Luckily (for me) he didn’t, but if he did it would’ve been my own f*****g fault. When you scare people be prepared to get hurt. And rightfully so I might add. 😉

Very good way to get shot and kill if he had been armed also.

I agree, she is lucky she wasn't shot!

Everyone who knows me or knew me in high school, knows "DO NOT SCARE". An a*****e decided he would test it out. At the time I was 4'10" but did construction and worked on a farm. He was a foot or more taller than me. Yeah, he ended up with a broken nose and a broken finger. He never scared me again. He avoided me at all cost.

This idiot woman is lucky to be alive. OP's husband showed great restraint when attacked on his own property by a masked assailant. With his military training, he could've done great or even lethal damage. Honestly, I would consider filing a police report just to have it on record. This could really escalate considering how the brother and his fiancee are so firmly standing their ground here.