Trick question. Any word can be written forward, backward, and upside down, and still be read left to right.

The man comes home and the first thing he hears is someone rummaging around in the kitchen—or maybe he sees a shadow being cast by a person in the kitchen. He assumes it’s his wife. His wife calls to him. He knows the person in the kitchen is not someone visiting his wife because she’d have called to them instead seeing as they’re actually in the kitchen. He knows she’s being held at the point of a weapon because if there are intruders and she weren’t being threatened she’d have warned him. He’s outgunned, and has no idea how many of them are in the house, so he runs before they know he’s wise to them and calls the cops. I think the reason she asked him to check the microwave is because she was being told to lure him into the kitchen.