Latest / True Horror Stories / 6 New Apartment/Home Horror Stories That Will Make You Rethink Your Move

Transcript

6 New Apartment/Home Horror Stories That Will Make You Rethink Your Move · True Horror Stories

0:01
Speaker 1: I used to live in a study apartment here in
0:03
Speaker 1: Denmark back in twenty seventeen. Study apartments are basically very small,
0:09
Speaker 1: typically one room apartments, serving as a way for young
0:12
Speaker 1: people to be able to move away from home despite
0:15
Speaker 1: not having much money. There is usually a long wait
0:19
Speaker 1: to get into these apartments, but after signing up for
0:22
Speaker 1: the wait list, it wasn't long before I was approved
0:25
Speaker 1: to move in. It all happened so fast, and before
0:29
Speaker 1: I knew it, I had a place of my own.
0:33
Speaker 1: The apartment was located in a sketchy neighborhood mostly low
0:37
Speaker 1: income families living off welfare were people with special needs
0:42
Speaker 1: who were dumped there by the government. This didn't bother me, though.
0:46
Speaker 1: I got to have my very own place at a
0:48
Speaker 1: relatively young age, which was a huge accomplishment for me.
0:53
Speaker 1: Here I could hang out with my friends, bring my
0:55
Speaker 1: girlfriend over, and generally enjoy the feeling of being an adult.
1:01
Speaker 1: While I was living there, nothing creepy ever, really happened,
1:05
Speaker 1: aside from dealing with an old lady who was mentally ill.
1:09
Speaker 1: She would always scream out of the residents, cursing at them.
1:13
Speaker 1: She was the kind of crazy that made you always
1:16
Speaker 1: look around when you pulled into the parking lot, you
1:19
Speaker 1: might want to park elsewhere if she was out and about.
1:22
Speaker 1: I found out that she didn't pay her electric bill
1:25
Speaker 1: because she believed that the government was monitoring her. She
1:29
Speaker 1: also always wore a bicycle helmet because she wanted to
1:33
Speaker 1: shield her brain from aliens trying to snatch it. I
1:37
Speaker 1: knew all of this from my friend, who was geting
1:39
Speaker 1: a girl who worked with elderly citizens. I never really
1:44
Speaker 1: felt unsafe in my apartment complex because of this. I
1:47
Speaker 1: was just aware of my surroundings, and I always made
1:51
Speaker 1: sure to lock my doors and check my apartment before
1:54
Speaker 1: going to bed, on the off chance that crazy old
1:57
Speaker 1: lady was hiding somewhere thinking that I was a gray. However,
2:03
Speaker 1: one night, after a gaming session that lasted until around
2:07
Speaker 1: three AM, I had just gone to bed and turned
2:10
Speaker 1: off my lights. I was very close to falling asleep
2:16
Speaker 1: when suddenly my doorbell rang. It was so loud and
2:25
Speaker 1: sudden that I almost flew out of bed. I sat
2:30
Speaker 1: up and carefully listened to the eerie silence that followed
2:33
Speaker 1: the ring. Mind you, this was three AM, and I
2:39
Speaker 1: was not expecting any visitors. My front door had a
2:43
Speaker 1: wooden frame with slot windows at the bottom and top,
2:47
Speaker 1: which I covered with papers so that people could not
2:49
Speaker 1: see inside. But even with the paper covering the openings,
2:54
Speaker 1: the hallway light still outlined the silhouette of someone standing
2:58
Speaker 1: outside of my front door. Upon seeing this, I became
3:04
Speaker 1: alarmed as I approached. Can I help you with something? Uh?
3:10
Speaker 1: Please let me in. I need your help. Please. The
3:15
Speaker 1: voice sounded drunk, but in a fake, pretend to kind
3:20
Speaker 1: of way. What do you want? Who are you? Uh?
3:25
Speaker 1: Please help me? I need your help. Please just let
3:29
Speaker 1: me inside. No way, man, I don't even know who
3:34
Speaker 1: the fuck you are. Do you have any idea what
3:36
Speaker 1: time it is? I just let me in. I swear
3:41
Speaker 1: I'm not going to hurt you. Hearing this made everything
3:45
Speaker 1: seem much more creepy than it already was. I grabbed
3:49
Speaker 1: my golf club from behind my door. Listen. I don't
3:54
Speaker 1: know what you need help with, but you had better
3:56
Speaker 1: speak up or I'm coming out there and you're not
3:59
Speaker 1: going to like what happens. I'm looking for number eighty six.
4:05
Speaker 1: Please just let me in. Eighty six. You're at sixty four.
4:11
Speaker 1: You're on the wrong level. Is this what you needed
4:14
Speaker 1: help with? The man then started to loudly bangle my door.
4:23
Speaker 1: I grabbed the doorknob and prepared myself for a confrontation. Suddenly,
4:29
Speaker 1: the pounding stopped, and I could hear the man's phone vibrating. Hello. Okay.
4:43
Speaker 1: He then addressed to me, his voice now sounded sharp
4:48
Speaker 1: and confident. I don't need your help anymore. He then
4:53
Speaker 1: slowly walked back down the hallway and left. I was
4:59
Speaker 1: in full calm that mode, but now I was just
5:03
Speaker 1: confused and a bit freaked out by the situation. I
5:07
Speaker 1: don't really have any enemies that would send a hit
5:09
Speaker 1: man to come deal with me. Maybe the guy was
5:12
Speaker 1: at the wrong place, or perhaps it was just some
5:16
Speaker 1: psychopath messing with people at three o'clock in the morning.
5:21
Speaker 1: After this occurrence, I stayed up for about another hour
5:24
Speaker 1: or so, smoking cigarettes and waiting to see if he
5:28
Speaker 1: would return. But he never did. To this day, I
5:33
Speaker 1: still have no idea what the person wanted. However, the
5:38
Speaker 1: sudden shift from sounding fake drunk to perfectly sober makes
5:43
Speaker 1: me think this wasn't your typical situation. Besides, who knocks
5:48
Speaker 1: on some random person's door at three am with all
5:52
Speaker 1: the lights off, Not to mention his comment about not
5:55
Speaker 1: hurting me. I think if I had opened that door,
5:59
Speaker 1: something bad would have happened. I'm glad I decided to
6:03
Speaker 1: keep it shut. This entire ordeal has shady written all
6:06
Speaker 1: over it, and I'm happy to say that nothing else
6:09
Speaker 1: like that happened again, and I ended up leaving that
6:12
Speaker 1: place two years later. This happened about fifteen years ago.
6:23
Speaker 1: I was twenty one years old and living in my
6:26
Speaker 1: very first apartment. It was a small bachelor apartment in
6:29
Speaker 1: a sketchy area. I grew up in a town that
6:32
Speaker 1: was known to be rough and tough, and I knew
6:35
Speaker 1: how to handle myself and learned at a young age
6:38
Speaker 1: to keep my head down and not go looking for trouble.
6:42
Speaker 1: My apartment building was behind a bar. A lot of
6:45
Speaker 1: the patrons of the bar would stand outside and smoke.
6:49
Speaker 1: When they did this, they would be facing my apartment.
6:54
Speaker 1: Most of the smokers would keep to themselves, A few
6:57
Speaker 1: would nod and say hello if I passed by, and
7:00
Speaker 1: I never had any issues until one evening that night
7:06
Speaker 1: I came home from work. I passed by the bar
7:09
Speaker 1: and saw this extremely tall man outside smoking. As I passed,
7:14
Speaker 1: he stared daggers at me. I gave him a slight
7:17
Speaker 1: nod and he acknowledged me, but he just continued staring.
7:23
Speaker 1: It made me feel uncomfortable, but I didn't think much
7:26
Speaker 1: of it. About an hour later, I heard a knock
7:30
Speaker 1: at my door. It was I, because you have to
7:37
Speaker 1: buzz people into the building. The complex only had eight
7:40
Speaker 1: units and I didn't really know any of my neighbors.
7:44
Speaker 1: I froze because I didn't really want to talk to anyone,
7:48
Speaker 1: but the knocking continued. I finally shouted, who is it.
7:57
Speaker 1: A voice on the other side replied, it's Tom. I
8:02
Speaker 1: don't know anyone named Tom. I think you must have
8:04
Speaker 1: the wrong apartment. The voice then said, you don't know me,
8:11
Speaker 1: but I know you. Open up so we can talk.
8:16
Speaker 1: I walked over to the peep hole and saw that
8:19
Speaker 1: it was the tall man from the bar. I lovely said,
8:25
Speaker 1: or I'm calling the cops. I then heard him walking
8:29
Speaker 1: away and heard the exit door opening and closing. It
8:39
Speaker 1: was gone, or so I thought. A few minutes later,
8:47
Speaker 1: I peeked out the window and saw that the tall
8:50
Speaker 1: man was standing in the parking lot. He seemed to
8:53
Speaker 1: be talking to himself. At this point, I'm freaking out.
8:59
Speaker 1: I called up my landlord, who lived in the building
9:01
Speaker 1: next to me. He told me to call the police
9:04
Speaker 1: and in the meantime, he and his brother would go
9:08
Speaker 1: check things out. I called the cops and I tell
9:12
Speaker 1: them what's going on. They said that they would send
9:14
Speaker 1: a car. Meanwhile, my landlord and his brother make their
9:18
Speaker 1: way to the parking lot. I watched out my window
9:23
Speaker 1: and saw them approaching the man. He took one look
9:26
Speaker 1: at them and then bolted. My landlord and his brother
9:31
Speaker 1: tried chasing him down, but he got away. Five minutes later,
9:36
Speaker 1: the police arrive. I gave my version of events and
9:40
Speaker 1: also a description of the man. The officer stares at
9:44
Speaker 1: me and says, it's a good thing you didn't answer
9:47
Speaker 1: the door. We've had reports come in of a man
9:51
Speaker 1: matching that description who has sexually assaulted women. A few
9:56
Speaker 1: days later, I get a call from the officer. He
9:59
Speaker 1: told me that as part of their investigation, they were
10:02
Speaker 1: talking to the owner of the bar. The owner informed
10:06
Speaker 1: them that the tall man appeared there a few days later,
10:09
Speaker 1: and the police responded and arrested him. This happened to
10:20
Speaker 1: me about four years ago. I was living with a
10:23
Speaker 1: roommate at an apartment complex in a bad area. It
10:27
Speaker 1: wasn't terrible, but it was right by a busy road
10:30
Speaker 1: that seemed to attract a lot of crime. As a woman,
10:35
Speaker 1: it was the kind of place you didn't want to
10:37
Speaker 1: walk around at night. I had and had been harassed
10:41
Speaker 1: almost every time. This was before I had a car.
10:45
Speaker 1: It was about three am. My roommate was dead asleep.
10:50
Speaker 1: I was awake, who knows why. I was in my
10:54
Speaker 1: room on the computer when I heard a knock at
10:56
Speaker 1: the door. It was literally just one knock. I took
11:03
Speaker 1: off my headphones to make sure I had actually heard it.
11:07
Speaker 1: After a few seconds of pause, another knock came. It
11:13
Speaker 1: then began a rhythm. It wasn't your typical someone knocking
11:16
Speaker 1: out the door wanting to see you. It was a slow,
11:20
Speaker 1: continuous one, almost like a heartbeat. Instantly I was alarmed,
11:32
Speaker 1: but I decided to just leave it alone. I would
11:36
Speaker 1: wait and see if maybe it was some drunk who
11:38
Speaker 1: had gotten confused and would toddle off. After a while,
11:43
Speaker 1: minutes passed and the knocking did not stop, and it
11:48
Speaker 1: never picked up or slowed down. It was just a continuous,
11:53
Speaker 1: rhythmic knocking. After some time, I heard the person try
11:59
Speaker 1: for the doorknob. Instantly I was fearing for my life.
12:06
Speaker 1: Without waking my roommate, I went into the living room
12:09
Speaker 1: and shouted through the door, who is it. The knocking
12:14
Speaker 1: suddenly stopped. I decided to look out the people and
12:19
Speaker 1: see who it was. I know this sounds like a
12:22
Speaker 1: horror movie, but I saw nothing at that point. I
12:28
Speaker 1: backed away, and after I did, the knocking resumed. My
12:37
Speaker 1: shouting had woken up my roommate, who was now asking
12:40
Speaker 1: what the hell was going on. I told her that
12:44
Speaker 1: someone was knocking at the door and they must have
12:46
Speaker 1: been hiding around the side because I couldn't see anybody there.
12:51
Speaker 1: We called up the police and they arrived about ten
12:54
Speaker 1: minutes later. During that ten minutes, my roommate and I
12:58
Speaker 1: had locked ourselves inside the bathroom while this psycho kept
13:03
Speaker 1: doing that slow knocking. Once the cop showed up, we
13:07
Speaker 1: were safe to come out and had to look at
13:09
Speaker 1: who was doing this to us. It was a boy,
13:12
Speaker 1: probably no older than eighteen. They had him restrained and
13:17
Speaker 1: had confiscated a backpack from him. Inside the backpack was
13:22
Speaker 1: a shocking amount of drugs and even worse, a knife.
13:27
Speaker 1: I had never seen this kid before, but we were
13:30
Speaker 1: told he lived across the parking lot from us in
13:34
Speaker 1: the exact same complex. The kid wouldn't say what he
13:38
Speaker 1: was doing here, but the contents of his backpack sent
13:42
Speaker 1: deep chills through my body. I'm certain that he was
13:45
Speaker 1: planning to use the drugs on us and then assault
13:49
Speaker 1: can possibly kill us. The kid was arrested and jailed
13:53
Speaker 1: for some time, not long enough in my opinion, But
13:58
Speaker 1: after he was released, I heard that he ran away.
14:01
Speaker 1: He had been living with his dad at the apartments.
14:05
Speaker 1: I haven't heard anything about him since, but my roommate
14:08
Speaker 1: and I moved to a nicer area shortly after this event.
14:12
Speaker 1: I seriously hope he gets locked up again, because it's
14:15
Speaker 1: clear he had every intent to victimize us, and I
14:19
Speaker 1: have no doubts that he would try it again. I'll
14:22
Speaker 1: never forget the way he knocked at our door. It
14:25
Speaker 1: filled me with a sense of dread I had never
14:27
Speaker 1: felt in my life. This story doesn't directly involve me,
14:36
Speaker 1: it did happen while I was in the same house,
14:39
Speaker 1: and I probably would have been a victim if it
14:41
Speaker 1: hadn't been for our family dog, Sammy. In the early eighties, Columbus, Ohio,
14:46
Speaker 1: was at the mercy of a man who was known
14:49
Speaker 1: as the Grand View rapist. When he was caught, he
14:52
Speaker 1: was connected to over sixty crimes and was suspected in
14:56
Speaker 1: at least forty more. One of the ways that he
15:00
Speaker 1: he was getting into houses was by posing as a
15:03
Speaker 1: gas reader. He would target women who were alone with children.
15:07
Speaker 1: He would enter these houses and then threatened to kill
15:10
Speaker 1: the children if the women did not comply. I don't
15:15
Speaker 1: know how things worked in other areas, but here in
15:17
Speaker 1: Columbus during the eighties, anyway, letting a gas reader into
15:22
Speaker 1: your house was a normal thing. There were lots of
15:26
Speaker 1: meters in the basement, and it was the kind of
15:28
Speaker 1: thing he didn't really give a second thought to. One day,
15:31
Speaker 1: there was a knock at our back door and a
15:37
Speaker 1: man called out, hello, I'm here to read the gas meter.
15:42
Speaker 1: My mom thought this was kind of strange. Our driveway
15:46
Speaker 1: at the time wrapped around the house, and if he
15:48
Speaker 1: pulled far enough up, the back door would be closer
15:51
Speaker 1: than the front. So she figured that's what happened. She
15:55
Speaker 1: went to let the man in. No sooner had she
15:59
Speaker 1: opened the door, Sammy came charging into the room, frothing
16:03
Speaker 1: at the mouth and snarling. Now here's a little bit
16:12
Speaker 1: of background on Sammy. She was a black lab that
16:15
Speaker 1: we had rescued before we adopted her. She had been
16:19
Speaker 1: struck by a car and had been brought into the
16:21
Speaker 1: Ohio State University Vet Hospital. She survived her surgeries, but
16:27
Speaker 1: because of them, she was full of screws, splints, and plates.
16:31
Speaker 1: Any sort of physical activity would cause her great pain.
16:34
Speaker 1: She's also the most laid back dog I've ever met.
16:38
Speaker 1: She did not growl, she didn't bark, and she didn't
16:41
Speaker 1: really seem to care if she had never met you
16:43
Speaker 1: before or not. That was a dog who was frothing
16:47
Speaker 1: at the mouth and anger and jumping so hard at
16:50
Speaker 1: the back door that she not only pushed it closed,
16:54
Speaker 1: she actually broke the window on the door by slamming
16:57
Speaker 1: into it. All the while my mother was trying to
17:00
Speaker 1: hold her back, saying to the man, ah, I'm sorry,
17:04
Speaker 1: she's never liked this. After several minutes, this guy runs off.
17:10
Speaker 1: He does not hop back into a work vehicle, He
17:13
Speaker 1: runs away on foot. It wasn't until after the man
17:16
Speaker 1: left that my mom began to think how odd this
17:20
Speaker 1: entire situation was. The man she saw was not wearing
17:24
Speaker 1: a uniform or had a clipboard. She didn't even see
17:28
Speaker 1: a name tag either, so she decided to report it
17:31
Speaker 1: to the police. The operator told her to lock all
17:34
Speaker 1: the doors and to stay on the line. Within minutes,
17:38
Speaker 1: there were a trio of cruisers out front and several
17:42
Speaker 1: more cops combing the area. Sammy was back to her
17:46
Speaker 1: normal self again, laying on her side and begging for
17:50
Speaker 1: treats whenever an officer came by. I was only two
17:53
Speaker 1: or three years old at the time, but I remember
17:56
Speaker 1: this part vividly. My mother gave a description of the man.
18:01
Speaker 1: This part was relayed to me later. It was a
18:03
Speaker 1: white male, fit mid to late twenties, with sandy blonde hair.
18:10
Speaker 1: The officer then told my mother we owed our dog
18:13
Speaker 1: a steak of dinner. He said that this suspect would
18:16
Speaker 1: stock houses while husbands were away at work, and they
18:20
Speaker 1: also suspected that he would observe school bus stops to
18:24
Speaker 1: find a women who were home alone with small children,
18:28
Speaker 1: and then knock on their doors pretending to be a
18:30
Speaker 1: gas man. There was a bus stop right outside of
18:34
Speaker 1: our front yard. I wish I could tell you that
18:38
Speaker 1: there was a happy ending here, but unfortunately there isn't.
18:43
Speaker 1: It was only when I was researching this story when
18:45
Speaker 1: I came across the most chilling discrepancy. The man who
18:49
Speaker 1: was convicted for these crimes was an older black man.
18:53
Speaker 1: My mother distinctly remembered seeing a younger white man. I
18:58
Speaker 1: know for a fact that several women have been violated
19:00
Speaker 1: in that same area around the same time. It was
19:04
Speaker 1: entirely possible that there was more than one man preying
19:08
Speaker 1: on women in that same area. To my knowledge, the
19:13
Speaker 1: man whom my mother encountered at our back door was
19:16
Speaker 1: never caught. The story happened in the fall of two
19:23
Speaker 1: thousand and nine. I used to live in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
19:28
Speaker 1: For some information, my name is Vanessa and I'm a
19:31
Speaker 1: thirty year old woman, but I was sixteen back then,
19:35
Speaker 1: and this was the year that I got my driver's
19:37
Speaker 1: license and my father bought me my first car, which
19:42
Speaker 1: was a two thousand and nine Infinity G thirty seven Sedan.
19:45
Speaker 1: I have three sisters named Sasha, Clarice, and Sabrina. They
19:51
Speaker 1: were all happy for me when I got my driver's license,
19:54
Speaker 1: so to celebrate, we decided to take a road trip
19:58
Speaker 1: to Delaware County to visit our cousins and other extended
20:02
Speaker 1: family members. Our father and stepmother were not very strict
20:06
Speaker 1: parents and were pretty laid back, so they didn't mind
20:10
Speaker 1: us taking this trip. They just reminded us to drive
20:13
Speaker 1: carefully and to always be aware of other drivers on
20:16
Speaker 1: the road. So we packed our bags and hit the
20:20
Speaker 1: road to spend the weekend at our uncle's house. The
20:22
Speaker 1: road trip to Delaware County went well, but when we
20:26
Speaker 1: headed back is where she went south. We were supposed
20:32
Speaker 1: to leave Sunday afternoon, but we were all having a
20:36
Speaker 1: good time with our cousins, so we didn't pay attention
20:38
Speaker 1: to the time and ended up leaving around nine pm. Unfortunately,
20:44
Speaker 1: we had to go because we had school the next day.
20:48
Speaker 1: There wasn't a lot of traffic, and we made a
20:51
Speaker 1: stop at a random target store so we could buy
20:53
Speaker 1: some snacks. Almost no one was in the store except
20:57
Speaker 1: for this strange man who kept staring at us. He
21:03
Speaker 1: was about six feet tall, had long, greasy, unkept hair,
21:08
Speaker 1: and yellow teeth. My sisters and I noticed him and
21:12
Speaker 1: told each other to keep our distance. While we were
21:16
Speaker 1: creeped out by the sky, we didn't think too much
21:19
Speaker 1: of it, but we started to get worried. Whenever we
21:23
Speaker 1: would go down another aisle, he would follow us. He
21:27
Speaker 1: eventually addressed us and said.
21:30
Speaker 2: Oh, you girls look so gorgeous tonight.
21:34
Speaker 1: Sabrina, who has a big mouth, responded with ill get
21:40
Speaker 1: a life. You better watch your mouth, little girl, before
21:45
Speaker 1: I squeezed the life out of you.
21:47
Speaker 2: I gave you a compliment, and you have the nerve
21:50
Speaker 2: to run your mouth.
21:52
Speaker 1: This is when I told my sisters that we should leave.
21:56
Speaker 1: We went to the checkout line and paid for our snacks,
22:01
Speaker 1: but when we got outside and walked towards our car,
22:05
Speaker 1: the man emerged from between two parked cars and rushed
22:09
Speaker 1: at us with a knife.
22:12
Speaker 2: I'm gonna watch your guts spill out like sausages.
22:16
Speaker 1: We went into full panic mode and began running. We
22:21
Speaker 1: decided not to run to our cars because if we
22:23
Speaker 1: tried to open our car doors, the maniac would definitely
22:27
Speaker 1: catch us. Luckily, the man wasn't very fast and he
22:31
Speaker 1: could not keep up with us. We crossed the street
22:35
Speaker 1: and decided to hide behind some large trees. We managed
22:40
Speaker 1: to outrun him, but he was still looking for us.
22:45
Speaker 2: I'm gonna find you, and when I do, I'm going
22:49
Speaker 2: to enjoy separating your heads from your bodies.
22:56
Speaker 1: Fortunately he did not see us and we were able
22:59
Speaker 1: to run back to our car. It was only when
23:02
Speaker 1: we got back that he finally spotted us. I quickly
23:06
Speaker 1: put the car in a drive and floored it out
23:09
Speaker 1: of there. But the drama was far from over. To
23:16
Speaker 1: our absolute horror, a pickup truck began tailing us. I
23:20
Speaker 1: made a quick getaway from the target parking lot, but
23:23
Speaker 1: I wasn't driving very fast because I thought it was over.
23:28
Speaker 1: The road we were driving on now was narrow, so
23:32
Speaker 1: I couldn't go any faster to escape him. He was
23:35
Speaker 1: tailgating us and even hit the back of my car. Eventually,
23:40
Speaker 1: the road widened, so I used it to my advantage
23:44
Speaker 1: and put the pedal to the floor. His old truck
23:47
Speaker 1: couldn't keep up. I then made a sharp right turn.
23:51
Speaker 1: He also turned, but he was too far behind. By
23:55
Speaker 1: the time we got to the highway, I lost him completely.
24:00
Speaker 1: Looking back now, I regret not going to the police station,
24:04
Speaker 1: but we were all freaking out and not thinking clearly.
24:09
Speaker 1: But in the end, I'm glad that we didn't get
24:11
Speaker 1: decampitated by that absolute maniac.
24:22
Speaker 2: This incident happened about five years ago. This is a
24:26
Speaker 2: story that I never really tell anymore because most people
24:29
Speaker 2: are either uncomfortable hearing it, or make well meaning comments
24:33
Speaker 2: about what I should have done in this situation without
24:37
Speaker 2: really understanding how differently your mind works when you're experiencing
24:40
Speaker 2: absolute panic. So here's my story. I was living in
24:45
Speaker 2: a relatively nice apartment in downtown Memphis, working as an
24:48
Speaker 2: ethalmic technician. I arrived home from work at my usual time,
24:53
Speaker 2: which is around four thirty PM, unlocked my door and
24:57
Speaker 2: went inside. I set my phone, wallet, and keys on
25:01
Speaker 2: the kitchen island, hearing my heavy metal front door swing
25:04
Speaker 2: shut loudly behind me, and began taking care of some
25:09
Speaker 2: errands around the house. Having grown up in a small town,
25:13
Speaker 2: it was habitual for me to not lock my door
25:16
Speaker 2: during the day, especially when I knew my husband would
25:18
Speaker 2: be home soon. Anyway, I've never forgotten to lock my
25:22
Speaker 2: door once in five years since this day. I walked
25:26
Speaker 2: through my bathroom and into my large walk in closet
25:29
Speaker 2: and began hanging up the laundry that I'd started earlier
25:32
Speaker 2: in the day before I left for work. My front
25:35
Speaker 2: door opened. I smiled with surprise. My husband was home
25:39
Speaker 2: a little early, and I happily called out to him,
25:42
Speaker 2: I mean your love. I was met with silence and
25:46
Speaker 2: slowly began to feel that sinking feeling of something is
25:49
Speaker 2: wrong crawl up my spine. Tried to shake it off,
25:53
Speaker 2: thinking my husband simply hadn't heard me, and walked out
25:56
Speaker 2: of my living room kitchen area. Standing on the other
25:59
Speaker 2: side of my kitchen island was a complete stranger. He
26:04
Speaker 2: was male, older than me I would estimate in his fifties,
26:07
Speaker 2: just standing there staring at me, no ski mask, no weapon,
26:12
Speaker 2: just watching me. I wondered if he'd maybe walked into
26:15
Speaker 2: the wrong apartment and was going to apologize and leave.
26:19
Speaker 2: But as he continued to stare, I realized that I
26:22
Speaker 2: needed to do something other than just gape at the
26:24
Speaker 2: stranger inside my house. I stood tall, popped out my
26:29
Speaker 2: chest in an attempt to look more threatening, which is
26:31
Speaker 2: hard to do as a small female. But he used
26:34
Speaker 2: a loud, clear voice, telling him to get out of
26:37
Speaker 2: my apartment, that he had no business being here. He
26:40
Speaker 2: completely ignored me like I hadn't even spoken, then began
26:44
Speaker 2: to pick up my things, my cell phone, my keys,
26:46
Speaker 2: my wallet. He picked them up methodically and put them
26:49
Speaker 2: into his own pockets. And that's when it hit me
26:52
Speaker 2: that this person is truly dangerous. I was naive enough
26:56
Speaker 2: to believe this was all a mistake until that moment,
27:00
Speaker 2: arted forward toward the only other device that I had
27:02
Speaker 2: that would allow me to get help, my computer. I
27:06
Speaker 2: had to take a few steps closer to the intruder
27:08
Speaker 2: in order to reach it, but I still had twelve
27:11
Speaker 2: to fifteen feet between us, so I knew I could
27:13
Speaker 2: grab it and run before he could reach me. So
27:16
Speaker 2: I picked it up and turned to run. I saw
27:18
Speaker 2: him start to move after me. I sprinted back toward
27:21
Speaker 2: the bathroom because it was the only place I could go,
27:24
Speaker 2: and put two locked doors between us, a bathroom door
27:28
Speaker 2: and the closet door. I slammed and locked the first door,
27:32
Speaker 2: and within seconds I could hear him messing with it
27:35
Speaker 2: trying to open it. I ran into the closet and
27:38
Speaker 2: locked that door too, opening my computer and getting on
27:41
Speaker 2: Facebook Messenger to contact my husband. I sent message after
27:46
Speaker 2: message pleading with him to call nine to one one
27:50
Speaker 2: and tell them that there was an intruder in our apartment.
27:53
Speaker 2: Got the messages within minutes and assured me that he
27:56
Speaker 2: had a dispatcher on the phone and he was leaving
27:58
Speaker 2: work himself to try and get to me if he could.
28:01
Speaker 2: I waited and waited. The bathroom door opened and the
28:08
Speaker 2: intruder came inside. He moved to the closet door and
28:12
Speaker 2: started to break down that door too. Here's the part
28:15
Speaker 2: where people usually start giving me advice on how I
28:18
Speaker 2: should have ACKed it. But all I can tell you
28:20
Speaker 2: is that I was frozen in the moments with fear
28:23
Speaker 2: and shock. I don't know, but I didn't scream or
28:26
Speaker 2: cry or search for a weapon in that dark closet.
28:30
Speaker 2: I didn't brace the door or try to hold it closed.
28:33
Speaker 2: I just kneeled in my closet and waited to die,
28:36
Speaker 2: because that's what I thought was going to happen. People
28:39
Speaker 2: also like to tell me that I lived in an apartment.
28:42
Speaker 2: Surely if I'd screamed, someone would have heard and come help.
28:45
Speaker 2: Surely there was something heavy enough in my closet to
28:48
Speaker 2: use to defend myself. Hell, even the laptop I had
28:51
Speaker 2: would hurt someone if I swung it at him. Why
28:54
Speaker 2: didn't I do anything? I don't really have an answer
28:57
Speaker 2: for that. But the closet door miraculously held. I heard
29:01
Speaker 2: frustrated footsteps go back into the living area of my apartment.
29:05
Speaker 2: I heard things breaking, bottles, shattering, my drawers, and refrigerator
29:09
Speaker 2: cabinets being flung open and things were torn out of them.
29:14
Speaker 2: I continued to sit in that closet, silently, crying and
29:17
Speaker 2: waiting to leave, feeling that death was inevitable. I feel
29:23
Speaker 2: awful about my selfishness in the moment, and I messaged
29:26
Speaker 2: my mom, who lived a fifteen hour drive away, and
29:28
Speaker 2: told her what was happening as well. I desperately wanted
29:32
Speaker 2: comfort and to tell her how much I loved her.
29:35
Speaker 2: I'm not a parent, but I can only imagine the
29:37
Speaker 2: fear and helplessness I put her in, knowing that her
29:40
Speaker 2: daughter was in danger and there was nothing she could
29:42
Speaker 2: do to help. She messes me back, constantly begging me
29:46
Speaker 2: to keep replying. I told her I would as long
29:49
Speaker 2: as I could, but I also told her to tell
29:51
Speaker 2: my brothers that I loved them, and to help my
29:53
Speaker 2: husband through whatever happened next, if it ended badly for me.
29:58
Speaker 2: The intruder came back and started messing with with the
30:00
Speaker 2: closet door again, mumbling disjointed words that I couldn't really distinguish.
30:06
Speaker 2: Remember hoping that the police would get to the apartment
30:08
Speaker 2: before my husband, that he wouldn't be the one to
30:10
Speaker 2: find me in whatever state this invetder left me in.
30:14
Speaker 2: The front door opened once more, but this time it
30:16
Speaker 2: was my husband shouting for me. The intruder walked out
30:19
Speaker 2: toward the living room kitchenera again and I opened up
30:22
Speaker 2: the door and darted from the closet to find my
30:25
Speaker 2: husband on the ground with him pinning him in place.
30:29
Speaker 2: The man kept mumbling and at times yelling, but never
30:32
Speaker 2: really put up much resistance. This entire part is a
30:35
Speaker 2: blur for me. I remember feeling like the room was spinning,
30:39
Speaker 2: filling with fear, mostly from my husband at this point.
30:42
Speaker 2: Eventually the police found the apartment. It took him about
30:45
Speaker 2: twenty five minutes to arrive, which still blows my mind.
30:48
Speaker 2: I know that time seems to move slowly during scary situations,
30:52
Speaker 2: so I thought it was less than that. But from
30:55
Speaker 2: the time my husband died nine to one to one
30:57
Speaker 2: to the time the officers arrived, it was twenty five
31:00
Speaker 2: excruciating minutes. This isn't intended to bash them in anyway.
31:05
Speaker 2: It just seemed like an unusually long time for a
31:08
Speaker 2: response to a home invasion. They got my things back
31:11
Speaker 2: from the man and took him out of my apartment.
31:14
Speaker 2: I numbly went through the process of filing a police
31:16
Speaker 2: report and telling them what happened, one of the officers
31:21
Speaker 2: commented that I really should keep my doors locked at
31:23
Speaker 2: all times. I remember feeling like he was being very
31:26
Speaker 2: insensitive or blaming me for what happened, but later recognize
31:32
Speaker 2: his words were coming from experience. I'm sure he's seen
31:35
Speaker 2: this situation indifferently for other women. Within thirty minutes, the
31:40
Speaker 2: scariest incident in my life was over. But I've carried
31:43
Speaker 2: the fear, the violation, and the anxiety of having someone
31:47
Speaker 2: intrude into my space for years. If it happened to
31:50
Speaker 2: me once, it could happen to me again. If this
31:54
Speaker 2: or something similar has happened to you and you're struggling
31:56
Speaker 2: with the aftermath of it, the sleepless nights, the lying awake,
32:00
Speaker 2: listening for sounds forced entry, the nightmares, the constant check
32:04
Speaker 2: and rechecking your locks. This is what eventually helped me.
32:09
Speaker 2: A year after this took place, my husband and I
32:12
Speaker 2: moved to the Midwest for his job. We selected a
32:15
Speaker 2: safe town with a nice apartment complex and chose the
32:18
Speaker 2: third floor apartment with only one point of entry. I
32:22
Speaker 2: looked up every statistic on crime for that neighborhood, finding
32:26
Speaker 2: only one incident that isolated for a car theft, and
32:29
Speaker 2: it was the only thing reported in decades. I still
32:33
Speaker 2: couldn't sleep at night. It was definitely better than staying
32:37
Speaker 2: in that same apartment in Memphis, but my husband often
32:40
Speaker 2: worked nightshift now and I couldn't simply continue being terrified
32:44
Speaker 2: to sleep at night. I realized my biggest fear wasn't
32:47
Speaker 2: that something could happen again, but that if it did,
32:50
Speaker 2: I was just as unprepared now as I was then.
32:53
Speaker 2: I hadn't changed anything other than locking my doors, and
32:57
Speaker 2: I knew I would likely freeze up again and leave
33:00
Speaker 2: my life up to being able to hide well enough
33:03
Speaker 2: or having a door hold long enough to save me,
33:06
Speaker 2: and that was unacceptable. I walked into a martial arts
33:10
Speaker 2: school with an excellent self defense program, introduced myself, and
33:14
Speaker 2: started taking classes. At first, I was quiet, hiding in
33:19
Speaker 2: the back of the room and generally keeping to myself.
33:22
Speaker 2: My instructor, who is both incredibly kind and incredibly insightful,
33:26
Speaker 2: slowly builds up my confidence and brought me out of
33:29
Speaker 2: my bubble of fear. After several months of training, I
33:33
Speaker 2: finally shared my reason for taking classes with him. And
33:36
Speaker 2: he's worked with me tirelessly to give me the ability
33:39
Speaker 2: to protect myself in any environment. I've been training for
33:43
Speaker 2: years now, and the difference has made in every aspect
33:46
Speaker 2: of my life is unbelievable. The meat quiet girl that
33:49
Speaker 2: waited to die in her closet does not exist. I
33:53
Speaker 2: am confident, I'm strong, I'm worthy of living and protecting
33:57
Speaker 2: myself in my home. I'm no longer ashamed of how
34:00
Speaker 2: I handled the situation I was in, but I also
34:03
Speaker 2: understand what steps I can take to ensure that I'm safe.
34:07
Speaker 2: Wasn't easy and it didn't happen overnight, but it was
34:10
Speaker 2: worth it. I recognize this might not be a solution
34:15
Speaker 2: or option for everyone. Your experience is valid, and however
34:19
Speaker 2: you decide to cope with your own story is the
34:21
Speaker 2: right choice for you. This is how I happen to
34:24
Speaker 2: do it, and it's worked well for me. Thank you
34:27
Speaker 2: again for listening. I'm a little afraid to share this
34:30
Speaker 2: because I'm not sure how people respond. Maybe doing so
34:34
Speaker 2: will help someone else that's feeling alone with this. If
34:37
Speaker 2: anyone is struggling with their own story and wants a
34:40
Speaker 2: kind ear to listen, I'm here. Stay safe out there,