• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Someone Came into my Apartment while I was Sleeping

This literally came happened a few hours ago and I’m still in shock/trauma/just scared.

Friend and I decided to room together and rented an apartment about a month ago. The apartment is located in a gentrifying area, basically not as nice as a suburb but not too bad for a place that’s close to the scene/downtown all the bars/clubs. It’s supposed to be pretty safe, but just the nature of the area I do take out all of my important belongings from the car but I never imagined something like this could happen.

It was getting late, about 1am and I’m just watching YouTube/reading some articles on my iPad. My roommate is out of town for a couple of days so it’s just me in the apartment. I ended up passing out around 1:30am I think. About an hour later I wake up because I’m hearing some noise/ruffling (I’m a very light sleeper). I open my eyes as I’m lying on my back and I literally see some guy crouched over next to my bed in my room using his flashlight on his phone to peer through my window. I couldn’t believe it...I had to be in a dream, no way this could be real. I just keep staring at his figure, still trying to decide if this was real or not. He hasn’t noticed me and I’m hoping it is something where if it’s a dream I’m about to wake up, or he’s not really after me and he’s just there for my belongings/he’d leave me alone. Then he started moving his flashlight over my bed towards me until he got to see my face with my eyes open. I just calmly say “hey what’s up man”. I can see his eyebrows rise, lines on his forehead probably because he was shocked that I was awake. I’m not going to lie, in this moment I’ve never been more scared in my life - if this is how it was going to end, I didn’t want to leave behind my mom, my siblings. I just couldn’t believe this was real. The guy slowly got up from his crouched position and quickly made his way out of my room silently and I heard a light thud which I believed to be the door. It’s 2:40am, I just froze for the next 10 min praying he was gone and deciding what my next move should be. I didn’t know if he was still in the apartment or not. Finally I just grabbed my phone which was right next to me, and decided to run for the apartment door (right next to my room so I should be able to get out in case if he was still inside).

I had a friend who lived in the same complex and I ran to his apartment. I kept banging on his door/window to let me in or help me. I didn’t want to go back to the apartment myself...amazingly my friend is such a deep sleeper he couldn’t wake up from my 20 phone calls, door/window banging, his own dog barking, etc. I ended up staying and crouching by his apartment door throughout the night.

Now it’s about 7am with the sun out and my friend still sleeping I decided to brave it out and return to the apartment. I still wasn’t 100% sure if it was real or not...I opened my apartment door and I noticed the patio door was open too. He must’ve slipped out through the patio door which may or may not have been left unlocked by me (I’m hoping it was just left unlocked by me, would me much worse if he somehow had keys). I inspected the apartment and none of my belongings were taken and person seemed to have left after all. I am 100% sure someone was there. I usually leave one light open in the living area during nights but all lights were turned off when I got back. Also, the iPhone chargers which has wiring that you can easily walk through when going to the patio were out of the outlets - he may have slipped through these whenever he entered/escaped through the patio.

I’m not sure what to do next really, I’ve never been more scared. I’m just grateful to be alive and get to see my family, friends, even gaf....I have this very bad urge to cry right now. I’m a mid 20s male who hasn’t cried in years
 

Tschumi

Member
To what extent was your door locked brah?

Clog Season 3 GIF by The Simpsons


(For real, sorry to hear about ur shock go talk at your local police station, and research home security. Also keep a fucking scary weapon by your bed. Consider leaving Footscray.)
 
Last edited:
To what extent was your door locked brah?

Clog Season 3 GIF by The Simpsons


(For real, sorry to hear about ur shock go talk at your local police station, and research home security. Also keep a fucking scary weapon by your bed. Consider leaving Footscray.)

Main door was definitely locked but admittedly haven’t been good checking patio door every night which is likely how he got in. Still..I just never expected someone to just walk in/be checking if these doors were left unlocked. Lesson learned and yeah I’m not sure if I’ll stay here much longer
 

Tschumi

Member
Main door was definitely locked but admittedly haven’t been good checking patio door every night which is likely how he got in. Still..I just never expected someone to just walk in/be checking if these doors were left unlocked. Lesson learned and yeah I’m not sure if I’ll stay here much longer
Put up post-its around your neighbourhood, offer to be friends with the guy who crept into your house.. offer local co-op.. then entrap him. Make him pay.
 
I live in an apartment that requires a key fob to even enter the building. I travel for work so I’m used to hotel doors locking automatically and I forget to lock my door one night and a girl (presumably an escort or something) just walks into my roommates room and starts trying to get into bed with him. He didn’t think it was nearly as funny as I did
 
Contact your landlord about changing the locks ASAP. You're in shock, so you might not notice that roommate's keys are gone.

It's not as good as a deadbolt, but you could get a pick-resistant key-locking doorknob and swap out the one on your bedroom door with it. It's not very difficult (doesn't require boring like adding a deadbolt would, which would likely make your landlord mad), and should be able to be switched back easily if/when you move.

You might consider getting curtains/blind to block the view inside your room and moving your bed. Not to make you paranoid, but he knows the layout of your room. If he comes back and actually breaks in (I'm assuming your patio door is glass and sliding, so that is easy) he knows where your bed is in the room. Moving things around would being momentarily confusing if he breaks in again and broke through the bedroom door.

Get a gun, or at the least a nice heavy wooden baseball bat.

If you get a simple home security system, DO NOT put up any notice of which system it is and keep the sensors and monitoring equipment out of view from outside. If you can put up a sign for a different system of a different communication type (i.e. if you get Simplisafe, which uses wireless communication, see if you can buy ADT decals because it uses wired connections that need to be cut) do that as well to try to confuse them. Simplisafe and the like are vulnerable to jamming with relatively cheap equipment, but with you living in an apartment even if this intruder sees Simplisafe or other wireless security system signals he does not know if it is your system or not. If your patio door is glass, get a glassbreak detector for sure.
 

GeorgPrime

Banned
This literally came happened a few hours ago and I’m still in shock/trauma/just scared.

Friend and I decided to room together and rented an apartment about a month ago. The apartment is located in a gentrifying area, basically not as nice as a suburb but not too bad for a place that’s close to the scene/downtown all the bars/clubs. It’s supposed to be pretty safe, but just the nature of the area I do take out all of my important belongings from the car but I never imagined something like this could happen.

It was getting late, about 1am and I’m just watching YouTube/reading some articles on my iPad. My roommate is out of town for a couple of days so it’s just me in the apartment. I ended up passing out around 1:30am I think. About an hour later I wake up because I’m hearing some noise/ruffling (I’m a very light sleeper). I open my eyes as I’m lying on my back and I literally see some guy crouched over next to my bed in my room using his flashlight on his phone to peer through my window. I couldn’t believe it...I had to be in a dream, no way this could be real. I just keep staring at his figure, still trying to decide if this was real or not. He hasn’t noticed me and I’m hoping it is something where if it’s a dream I’m about to wake up, or he’s not really after me and he’s just there for my belongings/he’d leave me alone. Then he started moving his flashlight over my bed towards me until he got to see my face with my eyes open. I just calmly say “hey what’s up man”. I can see his eyebrows rise, lines on his forehead probably because he was shocked that I was awake. I’m not going to lie, in this moment I’ve never been more scared in my life - if this is how it was going to end, I didn’t want to leave behind my mom, my siblings. I just couldn’t believe this was real. The guy slowly got up from his crouched position and quickly made his way out of my room silently and I heard a light thud which I believed to be the door. It’s 2:40am, I just froze for the next 10 min praying he was gone and deciding what my next move should be. I didn’t know if he was still in the apartment or not. Finally I just grabbed my phone which was right next to me, and decided to run for the apartment door (right next to my room so I should be able to get out in case if he was still inside).

I had a friend who lived in the same complex and I ran to his apartment. I kept banging on his door/window to let me in or help me. I didn’t want to go back to the apartment myself...amazingly my friend is such a deep sleeper he couldn’t wake up from my 20 phone calls, door/window banging, his own dog barking, etc. I ended up staying and crouching by his apartment door throughout the night.

Now it’s about 7am with the sun out and my friend still sleeping I decided to brave it out and return to the apartment. I still wasn’t 100% sure if it was real or not...I opened my apartment door and I noticed the patio door was open too. He must’ve slipped out through the patio door which may or may not have been left unlocked by me (I’m hoping it was just left unlocked by me, would me much worse if he somehow had keys). I inspected the apartment and none of my belongings were taken and person seemed to have left after all. I am 100% sure someone was there. I usually leave one light open in the living area during nights but all lights were turned off when I got back. Also, the iPhone chargers which has wiring that you can easily walk through when going to the patio were out of the outlets - he may have slipped through these whenever he entered/escaped through the patio.

I’m not sure what to do next really, I’ve never been more scared. I’m just grateful to be alive and get to see my family, friends, even gaf....I have this very bad urge to cry right now. I’m a mid 20s male who hasn’t cried in years

Now you know why the appartment was free and cheap
 

RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
lol @ get a gun... Americans, just get a fucking baseball bat and keep it beside your bed along with one of those torches that can illuminate the moon, that way if it happens again you can blind the cunt then whack him instead of offloading bullets everywhere killing your neighbours and some local cat
 
Last edited:

teezzy

Banned
lol @ get a gun... Americans, just get a fucking baseball bat and keep it beside your bed along with one of those torches that can illuminate the moon, that way if it happens again you can blind the cunt then whack him instead of offloading bullets everywhere killing your neighbours and some local cat

Baseball bats would not be as ideal as a firearm when someone is desperate enough to break into your home while you're sleeping and may also have a firearm
 

RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
Baseball bats would not be as ideal as a firearm when someone is desperate enough to break into your home while you're sleeping and may also have a firearm
Yeah see that's why you guys have a gun problem, your solution to guns is bring more guns because the media has you all convinced every bad guy is armed to the teeth, all i gotta worry about if someone breaks into my house is whether or not my small cock swinging around is gonna get laughed at before i empty his skull over my carpets
 

teezzy

Banned
Yeah see that's why you guys have a gun problem, your solution to guns is bring more guns because the media has you all convinced every bad guy is armed to the teeth, all i gotta worry about if someone breaks into my house is whether or not my small cock swinging around is gonna get laughed at before i empty his skull over my carpets

I don't own a gun, but if I had an experience even remotely similar to OP's you bet your ass I'd look into acquiring one and learning to use it asap

Godspeed, OP
 

FunkMiller

Gold Member
Yeah see that's why you guys have a gun problem, your solution to guns is bring more guns because the media has you all convinced every bad guy is armed to the teeth, all i gotta worry about if someone breaks into my house is whether or not my small cock swinging around is gonna get laughed at before i empty his skull over my carpets

Gotta say, if I lived in America, I'd probably buy a gun. Thankfully though, I live in a country where guns aren't easily available, so don't have to worry about it. I'd probably just club him to death with my enormous penis.
 

Lunarorbit

Member
Glad your safe. That's messed up. Yesterday I watched gone in the dark about the golden state killer which was on hbo all day. Definitely change the locks and double check each night.
 
That's some scary shit man. I have to echo the sentiments of others - get a (not small) dog and/or a gun. A big barking dog is one of the best deterrents to have. Unless they absolutely know you have a briefcase full of cash, no one is going to risk getting mauled by a good sized dog. Change the locks ASAP, and also tell your roommate to not blast on social media that they're going to be gone (I don't know if they did this, but way too many people do)
 
After some more thought, he was probably at the window signalling to someone with his phone light. You probably interrupted an impending bigger home invasion or robbery when you woke up. Definitely get things done ASAP to secure your place.

This. The poor guy obviously found nothing worth stealing, so you should definitely purchase some high ticket, high demand items for him to be able to steal next time.

The phone he typed this on is probably worth more than a gun. He's also on a video game board, so chances are he has electronics that are also worth more than the average gun and are way easier to pawn.
 

thief183

Member
Something similar happened to me but (I don't how and why) I reacted in a different way... I hit him in the face with my open hand and reached a fake Katana I got close to my bed, he ran away crashing everywhere. I followed him to the exit door and watched him running in a car where there was another guy waiting.

Not a single drop of fear in me.... until I realized what happened and passed the next month sleeping only in the morning... noone came back for now. I'm honestly more scared now that in the moment.
 
Last edited:

Zangiefy360

Banned
I just calmly say “hey what’s up man”. I can see his eyebrows rise, lines on his forehead probably because he was shocked that I was awake. I’m not going to lie, in this moment I’ve never been more scared in my life - if this is how it was going to end, I didn’t want to leave behind my mom, my siblings.

This has to be one of the most beta things I've read in a long time. I'll echo the other posters telling you to buy a gun and learn how to use it ASAP! You're a sitting duck.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
lol this guy cant even call 911 and you all are telling him to get a gun. he would probably shoot himself with it.

OP, amazing story. i wouldve totally freaked the fuck out. good on you for keeping cool. who knows what wouldve happened if you hadnt stayed calm and didnt ask whats up.

Buy this:

it's a $100 off today and comes with enough pieces to secure all your windows and doors. you dont have to get their 24/7 monitoring. the alarm is so fucking loud that anyone breaking in would run for the hills.

i have pretty much all my windows, backdoors and garage doors secured. All i have to do is arm the alarm before i go to sleep from the app and even anyone opens the windows or doors, it triggers the alarm.

i paid $250 for it and $150 for it is a steal. if you have $10 a month to spare you can buy their 24/7 monitor which dispatches cops to your house every time an alarm is triggered but i trigger the alarm like every other week when i forget to disarm it so you probably dont want to do it.
 
Last edited:

zeioIIDX

Member
That's scary as hell. I grew up on the south side of Chicago so I've been through my share of people breaking in to my home, car, etc. It's the reason I have zero childhood home movies...they all got stolen along with our VHS tapes. Still pissed about that one. My ex wife's ground floor apartment was broken into last year...they came in through my daughter's bedroom window at night. Fortunately, my daughter was visiting me the week it happened. Shit is fucking scary. Now I'm on the ground floor the complex I live in and I've got 3 Wyze Cams going and a Taurus G2C as well as a baseball bat. Hey, protection is protection.

Sorry to make that all about me. I hope you're doing alright! All things considered. You should try to file a police report and see whether they can investigate as far as locating possible surveillance footage in the area that could have captured the perp's face/clothes/vehicle/etc.
 
Top Bottom