01x03 - Alarmed and Break in Bad

[bunniefuu]

- She said to me, "mommy,
there's someone in the closet."

- This story has become
like a legend.

- We could have been
all axe-m*rder*d.

- There were two
perfect footprints

Of a shoe on the wall.

- I hear someone behind me say,
"oh, I was wondering

When I'd get to meet
the people that live here."

- I heard them
doing the countdown

And saying, "we're gonna
let the dog loose."

My house is a crime scene.

- Man found hiding
between a family's walls.

- Intruder secretly living
inside her attic.

- Man slithers out
from under home.

- Make sure your crawl spaces
are locked.

- I hear footsteps.

I'm vulnerable, naked,
and someone is in my house.

- There was somebody
violating my home.

I wanna believe it's in my head.

- It's a giant man's handprint.

- You came into my home.
You invaded my privacy.

- We had a phrogger
in our house.

- In 2008, I was living
in plains, pennsylvania,

With my three children.

Cory, age 14,

Alyssa, age 11,

Courtney, age 4.

Plains, pennsylvania,
is a very tight-knit,

Very welcoming community.

Holidays do tend to put
a lot of stress on people,

But christmas was very special.

It was a very happy time.

Getting the porch ready
and making sure

That the christmas lights
are on.

Decorating,
putting up the snowman,

Putting up the santa clauses,
putting the christmas tree up,

Wrapping presents
and hiding presents,

Keeping everything a big secret.

Seeing their faces
is what truly is important.

- Christmas for my mom
was very important

Because she knew
that she was able to give us

The christmas
that we all wanted.

- We moved into this house

About three years prior to 2008.

The street that I lived on
was a dead end road.

Our house is a double block,

So it was two regular houses
just put together,

So the neighbors were directly
on the other side of the wall,

And in this particular house,
the attic was shared.

Right at the top of the steps,

My two daughters
did share a bedroom.

Then you walk down the hall,
and it was cory's room

And my master bedroom

Was right
at the end of the hallway.

Being a single parent,
life was very hectic.

There was two teenagers
in the house,

Kids constantly at the house.

It was chaos.

At the time in 2008,
I was a supervisor

At a home improvement store.

So over the christmas break,

I was a little bit
more flexible with my schedule

To make sure that the kids

Enjoyed their time off
from school.

Christmas break, it's fun.

There's children.
There's their friends.

- Our house was always the one
that the friends came to,

And my mom was always
so welcoming

Of all of our friends.

Our house was always busy.

- I come home from work

To open up refrigerator
to get a glass of soda,

And that soda bottle
was missing.

Then I proceeded to go
to the cabinet

To get the extra soda,

And all of the soda was missing.

I immediately
blamed the children.

I just thought maybe
their friends came over.

They had drank it all.

Never thought
anything else about it.

I did ask each child
if they had drank the soda,

Or if they've seen the soda.

I got the answer of,
"wasn't me. I didn't do it."

- My brother cory and I insisted

We did not drink all the soda,
but five bottles were gone.

- And that's when strange things

Started happening around us.

One day, alyssa had asked me

If I had washed a pair
of her pants and shirt,

And I knew
that I didn't have anything

In the washer or dryer.

She did look in her bedroom.

They weren't there.

When alyssa
didn't find her clothes,

I just assumed she left them

Over at one
of her friends' house.

This is what kids do.

- I was definitely mad at my mom

When she accused me
of losing this outfit,

Because it was
my favorite outfit.

There was no way I lost it.

- Alyssa was very persistent.

She knew that she had them
one day,

And a few days later,
that they were gone.

One morning, just wake up,
getting ready to go to work.

Open up the medicine cabinet...

My toothbrush is missing.

There were a lot of
toothbrushes at my house.

Every time that the kids
had their friends stay over,

I was the parent that always
kept an extra toothbrush.

There's a basket there

With a bunch
of marked toothbrushes in it.

My toothbrush was not there.

Once the toothbrush was missing,

You just kind of throw
your hands up in the air.

It's tough.
There's three kids at home.

It's a busy house.

A few days before christmas,
courtney and I

Were in bed watching a movie.

I had fallen asleep,
and courtney had woken me up

In the middle of the night,
and she said to me,

"mommy, there's someone
in the closet."

And I consoled her,
put my arm around her,

And I told her she was
just having a bad dream,

And let's go back to bed.

Courtney has never been woken up

In the middle of the night
by strange noises,

What she thinks she's seeing.

This was the first time
that she's ever woken me up

To tell me
that she had saw something.

I didn't look in the closet.
I didn't think about it.

I just assumed that she
was having just a bad dream.

But I didn't know
what was happening.

Just a lot of questions
unanswered.

Our family tradition
every christmas eve

Was to let the kids open
one present of their choice

From underneath the tree.

- We all ran downstairs,

And then I opened
the gift up that I picked,

And it was the mp3 player

That I had been asking for
for months.

I was so excited.

I gave my mom a big hug,

And I was ready to use it
right then and there.

- Alyssa was very surprised.
She was very happy.

Kicking, screaming
like a little kid would do.

- My mom plugged it
into our computer,

And she let it charge
so I could use it later on.

- After we had opened up
some presents,

We then put
our christmas pajamas on,

And it was bedtime.

It's christmas morning,
and everything goes haywire.

The kids are opening up
their presents.

We're all sitting
around the christmas tree.

They're all happy.

Everybody's in a very good mood.

Then we get everybody ready.
We go and visit my parents.

We were there for a few hours.

- And when we got back
to the house,

We saw that my mp3 player

That we had plugged in
was just gone.

- We asked courtney,

Thinking that she
had moved it somewhere.

It's christmas.
Presents are everywhere.

House is a mess.

She doesn't know
what we're talking about.

- At that time, I was very upset

That my mp3 player was missing,
but at the same time,

I didn't notice
anything different with my mom

And how she was acting.

She was always so composed,

And she had a lot on her plate.

- I would never
put any of this together.

The soda, the mp3 player,
or alyssa's clothes.

These things are normal,
everyday things

That go missing
in, you know, your house.

We were getting ready to go

To another family's house,
and we went

To go pick up
our christmas cards.

And all of the cards
were missing,

And so was the money
that was inside the cards.

At that point,

We stopped everything
that we were doing,

Because we had felt
like something was happening,

And we just didn't know
what was happening.

I immediately called the police.

The police came.
They looked around the house.

They noticed that there
was no sign of forced entry.

We didn't notice anything
out of the ordinary.

- As an 11-year-old,
seeing police in your house

On christmas day,

It was stressful,
because I was afraid.

I didn't understand
really what was going on.

My mom asked us to go out
on the front porch

For a little bit.

She didn't want us hearing

Whatever she knew
that we didn't.

- So the police told us
that they were going to do

A couple drive-bys
just to check on the house

To make sure
that everything was okay.

We were about to leave
and visit some more family,

But now before we left,

I had made sure...
I didn't just double-check,

But I triple-checked
that the windows were locked.

We had chains on the backs
of the doors,

Made sure that they
were all locked,

And just made sure
that everything was right

Where I knew
where everything was.

- I remember my mom,

She actually took
wax parchment paper,

And she put it over the window
that was in our front door,

Thinking that if somebody
was coming into the house,

They were looking through
that window to see

If anybody was home,
so she blocked that window off

So you couldn't see
through it anymore,

And after that, we... we left.

- We didn't arrive home
until almost midnight

Christmas night.

When we came in,

I immediately walked
into the kitchen.

I saw that the chain

Was undone on our door.

And alyssa had noticed
that her charger

That was still plugged
into the computer

For her mp3 player was now gone.

And at the same time,
cory had said to me,

"mom, your laptop is missing."

That's when it took a turn
for complete chaos.

- Christmas night,
we called 911.

Again, the police came.

They did a full report.

Again, no sign of forced entry,

But the chain was undone
on our door.

The charger was missing.
The money was missing.

The mp3 player was missing.
My laptop was missing.

We were unaware of the things
that were happening around us.

I was a little scared.
I was a little frightened.

I had three kids in the house.

Was unaware of how they saw me
with my emotions.

- The first thing I remember
was the way my mom reacted.

She immediately
just had tears in her eyes.

Seeing my mom that upset,
it was hard,

Because my mom
always kept it together.

We all knew that something
was really, really wrong.

- I then packed up the kids,
and we left,

And we went and stayed
with family that night.

- That night, I ended up
staying at my dad's house

With my brother,
and my mom and sister

Went to my grandmother's house.

- Sleeping that night
at my parents' house

Was... I could just remember

Laying down in bed with courtney

And just crying myself to sleep,

Knowing that I didn't provide

A safe environment
for my children.

I didn't know
what was happening,

And I didn't have answers
for any of them.

The day after christmas,
I went back to my house.

- My mom was in contact
with us all day.

She just wanted
to keep us up-to-date

Because she knew
we were also worried.

- I was getting ready for work.

I got a phone call
from a family member.

They asked, "is there someone

That could have possibly
come in?"

I said, "I don't know."

Because there
was no forced entry,

I definitely thought someone
had a key to my house.

So at that time,
the locks were being changed.

You know, at that point,
my family member told me,

"hey, why don't you
check the attic?"

And I said, "there's no way

"that you can even get up
in that attic.

There's no way."

The attic is directly above
all three bedrooms,

And the attic access
was in my bedroom closet.

We did not use the attic.
It was an unfinished attic.

My family member then said,
"why don't you check

"the clothes that are
on top of the shelving unit?

Make sure that there's
nothing dirty."

I was in my closet on the phone.

Checked my clothes.
There was nothing.

I didn't see anything
that didn't belong.

It was a very tight closet,
so at that time,

I was turning around to leave,

And that's when I noticed...

There were two
perfect footprints

Of a shoe on the wall.

That's when panic struck.

That's when...

I was scared.

I saw the footprints.

I immediately dialed 911

And let them know
someone entered my home.

- From what I saw, the prints
were lined up perfectly

To show that he used it
to get into the attic.

So when my mom told us
what was happening,

The sound of shock in her voice
shocked us as well.

- When the police showed up,

The whole street
was entirely blocked off.

It felt like the whole entire

Plains township
police department was there.

And my house is a crime scene.

The police came,
evaluated the situation,

And that's when we noticed
above the doorway

That there was actual
handprints on the wall.

My first reaction
was it was the neighbors.

We had a shared attic.

They were coming in and out of
the house when I wasn't home.

Police immediately walked over
to the neighbor's house

To see if any of my belongings
were there.

So looking for a laptop,

Looking for an mp3 player,
looking for the charger,

Looking for anything
that belonged in my house,

And nothing was there.

A few minutes later,

The police were back
at my house.

The neighbor had opened up
my front door,

And he yelled in,

"hey, are you guys
in the attic?"

I took a step back.

The police officer said,
"no, I'm sorry.

Why? What's going on?"

The neighbor said he had moved
his access panel to the attic,

And when he pushed up,

It resisted,
and someone pushed down.

That's when I realized

That somebody was really there.

It was unreal to even think

That this was right above
where we were all sleeping.

- The police had ripped out
everything out of the closet.

They took the access panel down.

They put a ladder going up
into the access panel,

And they couldn't get up there

Just because
it was a very small area.

So the k9 unit
came to the front door.

They let the dog go
to the top of the ladder...

And he started
barking profusely.

So the cops had started yelling,

And the person in the attic
was yelling back.

And I heard the cops doing
the countdown and saying,

"we're gonna let the dog loose
if you don't come down."

He then surrendered.

When he came out of the attic,

He was definitely disheveled.

You... he was not fully cleaned.

He did come out
wearing my sweatshirt,

Alyssa's sweatpants,
and my sneakers,

And then he was placed
in handcuffs in my bedroom.

We had been guessing

That he was up there
for about nine days.

And they also discovered

He had a makeshift toilet.

The cops had found out
that, between the slats

Of the roof,
he had a piece of wood

Going through,
so when he actually pulled

The piece of wood down,
the shingles would lift up

So he had access
to see the road,

Who was coming, who was going,
and who was also home.

He was there
when I was sleeping.

He was there when the children
were sleeping.

He was there when we were

Celebrating christmas
downstairs.

He was there the entire time.

When he came walking out
in handcuffs, I was angry.

I was upset,
so I had to tell him...

Like, "don't forget.
You came into my home.

You invaded my privacy."

Then they placed him in the car.

His name was stanley carter.

He's 21 years old,
and he was from arkansas.

He had been staying
with the neighbors for days.

They were friends with this guy.

The neighbors
wanted him to leave,

And from what
we found out later,

He had written a note stating
that he had gone for a walk,

And he never came back.

When he left the note,

He didn't take
any of his belongings,

And that's when they started
piecing everything together

That it had to be him
in the attic.

We had no clue
that he was next door.

We weren't
spending time outside.

It's cold. It's christmas.

Plus, with a busy schedule,
we were just on the go,

Not paying attention
to our surroundings.

Once they had left with him,

They did let us
back in the house,

And they just started handing
stuff down from the attic.

The things that were missing.
My laptop came down.

The money started to come down.

The toothbrush came down.

Alyssa's mp3 player came down.

The bottles of soda came down.

Ooh.

Seeing the stuff
coming down just...

It was heartbreaking.

There was a list,
and it was titled on the top,

"stanley's christmas list,"
and he had a list

Of everything that he had
taken from the house.

One thing that did
really raise a lot of concern

Was he had the spare key
to my car.

What was the plan?

What was the next step
that he was gonna take?

- Now that the attic was open,

I never wanted to see
what was up there.

I do remember my mom,
a few days later,

Bolting it down.

- The neighbors definitely
did feel terrible about it.

They did apologize.

They were very sympathetic.

But at the same time, I was mad.

I was upset. I was hurt.

So after it was all said
and done,

It was a little uneasy at first.

There was some nights
my youngest didn't sleep.

She was up crying.

Cory and alyssa
were definitely on edge.

Every little noise you heard,
every little thing

That went missing, it was like,
"what's happening?"

- After all of this happened,
our sense of security was gone.

- You know,
you try to forget about it,

But you can't.

You just can't.

A few months later, the police
did bring the evidence back,

'cause court cases were done.

They no longer
needed the evidence,

And that brought back
a lot more memories.

Looking back, I didn't observe
anything that was missing.

I didn't recognize it.

Putting courtney back to bed
after she had saw someone.

Alyssa's clothes were missing.

The mp3 player was missing.

Realizing it wasn't their fault.

I let someone come into my home.

I put my children in danger.

That's the way that I felt.

So the only thing I did take
from the evidence

Was my laptop.

I did ask them
to throw everything else away.

There was nothing found
up there that I wanted back.

He was ordered to pay
$1,640 in restitution.

$1,640 is not nearly enough

For what he has done
to all of us.

He had taken a lot of things
away from us.

Happy memories that we were
supposed to have,

He took those away.

He had ruined christmas
for my entire family.

- After all of this happened,

I could say that my mom,
even though she was terrified

And she was always looking
over her shoulder,

She made sure
that we were still having

A good time like we did
before this happened.

My mom truly
is a strong, strong woman.

- In 2013, I am a senior
at ohio state university

Studying computer science
and engineering.

I was looking forward
to graduating

And starting my career
after school.

I'm thinking
it's gonna be a good year.

- Brett is my roommate,

And I've known him
for four years.

Most of us, we all know
each other through engineering.

We all are
in the same dorm together.

- We live next door
to our friends,

And there were
about eight of us,

And on top of that,
there were two more

That wanted to get in
on living with us,

So we started looking
for larger places to live.

We ended up finding a place

On 13th avenue
in columbus, ohio,

That appeared to be, like,

An old fraternity house
of some kind,

And it had enough bedrooms
to accommodate all of us.

- You look at the house,

And it looks like
a typical campus house.

It's a little deceiving
because of how deep it goes.

You wouldn't know how large
it is from the front.

It's not until you walk around
all the way to the back

That you start to realize
how large this house really is.

You go in
through the back entrance

Up a steel stairway
and into the back

Of the house hallway
on the second floor

Where there are six bedrooms,

Three on the left,
three on the right.

It's just a long,
wooden floor hallway,

And as you keep going
on the wall facing you,

There is a bathroom.

If you were to make a left,
there is the laundry area

Where there's
a washing machine and a dryer.

If you make a right,
you go into the kitchen

Where we all share common space

For the refrigerator
and the oven and the stove

And a little bit
of storage for food.

And there was also a basement.

Nobody was living
on the first floor

When we moved in,

And that was the case
for about a month or so.

So that first morning,
we wake up...

And we walk into the kitchen.

- Every single cabinet is open.

Every single door that someone
had access to is open.

The fridge, the washing machine,

The oven, the dishwasher...
Everything.

- My initial thought

Is that it could be
brett sleepwalking.

- I have a history
of sleepwalking.

I have been known to get up
in the middle of the night

And just go to the fridge

And open that and leave it open,

To move things around
in the house.

- When we lived together
at our old apartment,

Every now and again,
you would see him

Kind of just walking around,

Or something strange
would happen.

Like, he would go
into the fridge

And rearrange things
or leave doors open,

And that's exactly
what we were dealing with.

- Because of that,
they just assumed

That it was me that was the one

That had opened
all the cabinets.

- I turn to brett, and I say,

"brett, have you
been sleepwalking?"

Brett denies that he
could have possibly done this,

But I was convinced
that it was him,

Even though he told me
that he didn't,

Because it seemed to be
the only logical solution

To what had happened.

- There's no way
that I would have been the one

To open up all of
the different cabinets,

Just because it seemed

Too planned out and meticulous.

I've never done something
like that while sleepwalking.

- Initially, the thought
did cross our mind

That there's a ghost
in our house.

I mean, it... it seems
like pretty ghostly activity

To just have strange occurrences

Like that in your house.

- The possibility
that it was a ghost

Occurred pretty immediately.

- And I think we...
We made that joke a few times,

"hey, we have a ghost
in our house,"

Whether it was serious or not.

- You know, a lot of us

Are engineers
who believe in science.

We're like,
"ghosts aren't really real."

- So initially, me and brett
didn't believe

That there was a ghost
in our house,

But our roommate did.

He was the most fearful
of all of us.

We just laugh
and kind of brush it off.

- But at the same time,
we couldn't really explain

Why all the cabinets were open.

- If it wasn't any of us,
who could it have been?

Is there somebody
still in the house?

So we decide
to search the house.

A ghost seemed less threatening
than an intruder.

Our plan is to start at the top

Because there's
no exit points up there...

And sort of sweep
our way down swat-team style.

So we worked our way
from the third floor...

All the way downstairs.

- Even though the idea
of a ghost

Being the culprit seemed crazy,
I began to doubt myself.

- We checked every room
and closet and everything else.

- We get down to the basement,

And on the landing
of the basement,

In front of us is a breaker box.

There's a door to our right,

And then to the left
there is, on the far side,

A half bathroom.

In the half bathroom,
there's a cup

That has a toothbrush in it.

The cleaning crews
for the apartment

Hadn't actually
fully cleaned out the house,

So we just thought
that they hadn't actually

Gotten to that point yet.

So we start to look
around the basement,

And it is a very dark,
dank basement

With lots of, like, debris
all around the house,

Maybe some, like,
tools and stuff

That might have been used

For, like,
maintenance of the house,

But it seemed to also
be divided into rooms.

There was one room to the right.

We walk up to the door

And try to jiggle the handle
to see if we can get in,

'cause it's the last room
that we wanted to clear.

It was locked.

- So we each try our keys

In the deadbolt
that's on the door,

And we can't even get the keys
to go into the deadbolt.

- Which was strange,
'cause that was the only door

In the house
that we didn't have access to.

So when we put our ears
up to the door to try to hear

What was on the other side,
we heard,

Like, a whirring noise,

Kind of like a computer fan
or something,

And we just kind of
thought to ourselves,

"well, maybe it's
a maintenance room."

- We don't call the police
because we don't see

Any immediate threat.

We see an old door
off to the right,

And it's just leaning
up against the wall.

So we decide to take this door

And barricade the stairwell
to the basement shut,

And we use a stool
to prop it closed

So that if there
is somebody down there,

Or something down there,
that it's not going to get out.

- In the first week of school,

I am sitting at my desk
working on some homework.

And suddenly,
all the lights in my room

And my air conditioner
just go out.

I think to myself,
"it's probably the breaker."

And I remember seeing
the breaker box

Down in the basement, so I go
down into the basement...

And flip the breaker.

I just chalk it up
to bad maintenance

With the house,
like how the cleaning crew

Didn't quite make it
down to the basement.

It's just, you know,
probably the fact

That it's an older,
more worn house.

- The house is in poor condition

When we move in,

So the fact that we had
electricity problems

Wasn't surprising.

- My power started
repeatedly going out

In my room at least
three to four times a week.

About a month later,
it's about 1:00 p.M.

I'm again
working on some homework,

And my power goes out,
so just like normal,

I go down into the basement
to go flip the breaker.

When I get down there, though,
I see that the door

That was locked previously
is actually open.

I put my head into the door...

And I see just
a normal college bedroom.

There's a rug on the ground,
a bed set up.

There's a guitar,

A mirror, and a dresser.

Just a college bedroom,

And it finally solved
the mystery of, like,

What was behind that door.

As I'm looking in the room,
I hear someone behind me say,

"oh, I was wondering
when I get to meet

The people that live here."

My initial reaction
to hearing that

Wasn't to immediately
question it,

Because in my mind,
there is that division

Between the second
and third floor

And the first floor.

I just thought that him saying,
"I was wondering

When I would get to meet
the people that live here,"

Was more that we had never
really officially met

Our first floor neighbors,

And he was just
part of their lease.

He introduces himself as jeremy,

And he's a student
at ohio state.

He is wearing
just classic college wear.

He is a medium build,

Just a normal college kid.

I think to myself,

Due to some of the other facets
of this house,

Like, "of course
they would put someone

In that dark basement."

Like, that'd be
the worst room to have.

We have a short conversation.

We talk about the fact of him

Living in the basement
and how awful that must be,

But he says that he's normally
not in the area anyway

Just 'cause he's normally
staying with his girlfriend.

I'm walking up the stairs,

And as I'm walking
up the stairs,

I run into a roommate
who, you know,

We had been, like,
kind of discussing the house

And, like, how many
kind of interesting things

Were going on in the house,
and I told him,

"can you believe that there's
a guy in the basement?

I just met him."

That roommate
finds that really weird

That there's a person
in the basement.

Shortly after that,

I have to go off
to marching band practice.

And then that roommate decides
to call the realty company.

The realty company says
that no one's

Supposed to be in the basement.

They call the cops.

- I come back from
band practice late that day.

I see everybody
standing out in the yard.

There's police.
There's the landlord.

And one of my roommates
just runs up to me and says,

"hey, dude, guess what.

"that room that you thought

"somebody might be
in the basement,

Turns out there actually was
somebody living down there."

I am shocked at this.
It's not a ghost.

It's a living person
in our basement.

That explains why the kitchen
had been gone through

And all the doors were opened.

The police go down there
and broke the door down.

He wasn't there, but I
was able to see everything

That he had in his room.

Inside, they find
somebody's living quarters.

He had a bed.

He had a dresser,
a desk with, you know,

Schoolwork and a desk lamp
and everything you would expect

To see in a college kid's room.

- The contents of the room
that I had just looked in

Are kind of spread
across the front yard.

The idea that there
could be someone

Just with such easy access

To all of our stuff
and all of our rooms

And none of us knew
that he was there,

'cause he just had
such an easy way of getting in

And out of the house
without detection,

It's kind of scary.

We could have been
all axe-m*rder*d.

Shortly after that happens,
one of my roommates had been

Talking with a friend of his
that worked for "the lantern,"

Which is the student-run
publication of ohio state.

He tells her about this story,
and she's blown away by it,

And she wants to do
a report on it.

The school does the article,

And then the local news
is suddenly interested in it,

And from there, they publish
a story, and it then goes viral

And it becomes a national story.

- When mark and his roommates

Moved into their new place
off-campus,

It seemed just like
any other college house

That needed a bit more work.

- There's mold
in our air conditioners.

The walls and the floors
were all dirty.

- But after a month of living
in the house off east 13th,

The guys started
to get the feeling

That something more was wrong.

- We had been telling
everybody the story

About the ghost in our house,

Coming and opening
all our cupboards

And the oven and the microwave
and all this stuff.

- They started getting
even more suspicious,

So mark and his eight housemates

Search the house.

Down two flights of stairs
in their basement,

They found a door.

They tried opening it,
but it was locked.

- Behind the locked door,
there were some weird noises.

Like, dings
and alarms and stuff.

- When their realtor
finally opened the door,

What they found
shocked everyone:

A bedroom that someone else
had been living in.

- No, what?
Like, you gotta be kidding me.

- According to brett,
jeremy wasn't home

When the boys finally
got into the room.

- Some random guy
had a key to our house

And was just living in our house

Without anyone knowing.

- The guys have changed
the locks on their doors.

They just feel lucky
it didn't turn out worse.

- It is pretty awesome,
during my senior year,

To have a story like that
in your back pocket

That you can just, like,
break the ice with

Or just tell anyone about,

And they instantly know
who you are and what happened.

You could tell anybody
on campus about that story,

And they know that story,

And then it made us, like,
minor celebrities on campus

That it was our house
that it happened to.

About a month later,
I'm at a happy hour,

And a coworker approaches me

And starts talking to me
about the incident,

And he starts giving me details

That were never specifically
mentioned in the news articles,

Like the fact that all of
those cabinets had been opened

In the first place,

And I asked him
how he knew that,

And he tells me
that it's because he lived

In the house the year before,

And he had actually kept the key

From the house the year before

And had intended on pranking
everyone living in that house

For who knows how long,
and his first prank

Was to go
into the house that night

And open up all the cabinets.

- For a long time, I figured

That it was jeremy the whole
time opening up the cupboards

And going through
the upstairs floors...

Until I found out differently.

- It's crazy that the whole
cabinet-opening incident

Is what caused us
to go down to the basement

And find that room
in the first place,

But in the end,

It wasn't actually this guy
in the basement.

It was someone
completely unrelated to that,

And it's just two
bizarre coincidences

At the same time.

This got such wide
media attention

That we put phrogging on the map

And made that a phrase
that people use.

- I never found out
how jeremy had gotten in.

He just disappeared,

And I never
heard from him again.

- I felt someone staring at me.

- I hear a thud
from the bedroom.

- The frog was dead.

- She starts repeating,
"he's in here.

He's in here."

- My heart is racing,
I'm physically shaking.

- Dial 911 now.

- There is a green eyeball

Staring directly up at me.