A county man reported $45,000 in cash was stolen from his home during an early morning burglary on Wednesday.

According to a police report from the Carter County Sheriff’s Department, Scott Storie reported a white man forced his way into his home at 144 Waterplant Road, Elizabethton, at around 3:45 a.m. Wednesday.

Storie reportedly told CCSD Deputy Jason Mosier that he and a friend, Jackie Phillips Jr., were asleep in the living room when a white man, about 6 feet tall and weighing about 250 pounds, broke into the home through the front door.

Once inside the home, the man allegedly threw a liquid, believed to be household cleaner, into the men’s eyes and started beating them with a baseball bat, Mosier wrote in the report.

“They stated he then got behind Mr. Storie’s bed and stole a lock box, which belonged to Mr. Storie, containing $45,000 in cash,” Mosier reported.

Storie also told Mosier that the suspect had been at his house about two hours before the break-in and had tried to get him to come outside. He then called Phillips to come stay with him in case the man came back.

According to the report, neither of the men in the home knew the suspect but believed they could identify him if they saw him again.

Mosier found signs of forced entry on the front door, and Storie had a cut to the right side of his neck.