01x08 - Who Left the Seat Up and Phantom Phrogger

[bunniefuu]

- I open the door,
and I find fruit lined up

Like an edible choo choo train.

- The window screen
looks busted,

Like it'd been tampered with.

Something was up.

- It quietly screamed,

"I was here."

- The room looked like
it had been ransacked.

There was something
under the bed.

- And I knew that silhouette,

And I'm being hunted
like an animal.

- Man found hiding
between a family's walls.

- Intruder secretly living
inside her attic.

- Man slithers out
from under home.

- Make sure your crawlspaces
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.

- My name
is helena jayne bryant.

In 2005, I was living
in columbus, ohio,

In a cute little house.

I live in the suburbs.

Well-manicured lawns,
flower pots,

Wonderful daughter,
groovy little life.

It was a safe place to be
for a very long time.

My decorating looks very much

Like the inside
of a genie's bottle.

There's colorful fabric
draped everywhere,

Plants and lanterns
hanging from the ceiling.

It's very warm and cozy.

There's three bedrooms.

That's the second floor
off the main floor.

If you walk into the kitchen,
it's well-lit, white cabinets,

And a marble island,
and I always had a fruit bowl

Sitting in the middle
of the kitchen island,

And that entered
into the outdoor patio space

Where I had lots of plants.

And that's where
I would oftentimes sit

And have my coffee
in the morning

Or my quiet time.

I was working
as an instructional assistant

In columbus city schools.

I tutored children in reading.

I liked the idea
of making a difference,

Especially in
the life of a child,

And I'm an avid reader,
and I wanted to do something

To help empower
inner-city children

To develop
a lifelong love of reading.

And I'm a single mom.

We're incredibly close.

We really valued
our time together.

One day, my daughter and I
are making plans

To go shop for tennis shoes.

As we're collecting our things
and heading out the door...

I get a call from someone
who's telling me a local store

Is having a sale
on tennis shoes.

It's as if somebody is aware

Of the conversations
taking place in the house.

One night, I'm lying in bed
and reading.

It's the end of the day,
and I'm unwinding with a book.

The phone rings.

- Hello?

- There's no one there.
No one says anything.

And I don't think
much of it at the time.

I hang up the phone.
I go back to my reading.

After a few weeks,
I begin to realize

That I'm getting a phone call
every evening

And every morning,

And the person
never says anything

When I answer the phone.

I look back
through my caller id,

And I realize that the calls

Always come in at 10:04.

Either 10:04 in the morning
or 10:04 in the evening,

Even on days when I'm not there.

10:04 in the morning

Throughout the week,
I'm at work,

Yet the calls were still
coming in precisely at 10:04.

When I look at the caller id,
it either says blocked,

Indicating the phone number

Has been intentionally blocked,

Or it says unknown.

I get this epiphany,

And the next time I pick up
that phone at 10:04,

I would be ready.

So I went to the store,

And the next time
the 10:04 call came in,

I was sitting on my bed
waiting for it.

The phone rang, I answered...

And I let the air horn rip.

And that was the end
of the calls at 10:04.

I laughed.

It felt powerful
to take control.

I showed him for a moment...

Until things got scary.

And then I didn't do
such a good job

Of showing him anymore.

A couple weeks go by,
and nothing happens.

I come home from work...

And I find all of the fruit

That was in the fruit bowl
lined up

In a neat little row,

Like an edible choo choo train.

I'd been at work all day.

My daughter
is in elementary school.

She doesn't drive.

I knew somebody
had been in my house.

And this time,
someone wanted me to know it.

It quietly screamed,
"I was here."

I froze.

It felt so sinister to me.

Your first thought is that
I'm going to call the police.

You know you would sound crazy.

That's the subtle madness of it,

Is that this person
decided to confirm

That they were coming
in my house,

But not leave enough evidence

To where I
would feel comfortable

Even telling anyone.

I come home,
and I find a box of tampons

Sitting next to the cat's
water bowl.

I come home,
and I find a jar of mustard

Sitting on the back
of the toilet.

I find my calendar had been
moved to a different location.

Things are now being moved
around my house

While I'm at work

Just to let me know that
somebody had been in my house.

I'm no longer able
to ignore all of these signs

That are happening in my life

That something's
very, very wrong,

And so when my daughter's father

Invited her for the summer...

He's living on the gulf coast
in mississippi

A thousand miles away...

And for me,
that felt like a huge relief.

It felt like
an opportunity for me

To get to the bottom

Of what is going on in my life.

One morning, I wake up,

And I go downstairs
to brew my morning coffee,

And I notice that
the coffee pot is missing.

Now, I'm an avid coffee drinker,

And I know
where my coffee pot is.

I know where my sugar is.
I know where my creamer is.

I know where
my favorite coffee mug is,

And it's not in the place
where it's always sitting.

So with the fog of sleep,

I'm not sure
I'm seeing things correctly,

And I look around the kitchen,

And I still
can't find it anywhere.

Now that my daughter
is visiting with her father,

I'm the only person
living in the house...

And I knew I hadn't moved it.

I started to panic.

So I went into the living room
to open up the curtains,

Thinking maybe more light,
I might see it.

And the coffee pot was sitting

In the middle
of the living room couch.

And I froze, because I knew

Now this person was coming
into my house while I slept.

Once I realized that he was now

Coming in my house
while I slept,

My first thought was,

"what happens
when my daughter comes back

And she's alone in her room
and I'm asleep..."

"and there's a madman
loose in my house..."

"who feels perfectly comfortable

"coming and going

And doing whatever he chooses
to do for his own sick thrill?"

I knew at that point
I had to call the police,

And so I picked up the phone,
and I called them.

The police officer arrives.

I'm embarrassed to mention
the reason I was calling

Was because a coffee pot
was on my couch.

I know how it sounds,

And that's how it was received.

It was a, "okay...

Does anybody else
have keys to your house?"

I was bothering him.

He didn't even want
to fill out a report.

I demanded
that he fill out a report.

I couldn't find police officers

Who could see the big picture

That these
are collective experiences

Creating a very scary story.

At that point, I didn't care

What law enforcement
said or did.

I was calling constantly.

I had the sense within me
at that point,

I needed to start
creating a paper trail.

One day, I come home from work,

And all of the flower pots

Are rearranged on my back porch.

The next time I come home,

There is a still-cold
bottle of beer

Half drank
sitting on the back patio

As if somebody sat
in the dark and drank beer,

And as soon as I got home,
they left,

And they would leave
a pocket knife,

A partially eaten sandwich,

Little clues
that they had been there

Sitting outside in the dark.

I call the police when I see
fresh footprints

Around my windows.

I call the police
when personal items

From my car come up missing.

I call the police
when I see the imprint

Of someone's face
against the glass,

And there were certainly
some officers responding

Who actually,
I would go so far as to say,

Were concerned for me...

But none of them seem to agree

That this was a sign
of a bigger scheme.

When you're going
through a situation

In which you feel as though
your life is under attack,

It behooves you to consider
everyone as a possible suspect,

But the shadow side
of suspecting everybody,

The more isolated
your world becomes.

Summer came,
and in our little community,

We had a wonderful
community pool

Where my daughter and I
would visit every day.

One day,
I'm sitting at the pool,

And I happen to notice
a beat-up car

Sitting just outside the pool

Kind of over my shoulder,

And the car doesn't fit
with the other cars

In the parking lot.

The other cars are newer,
nicer, well kept.

This is very much
of a beat-up car.

That caught my attention,

But then I noticed the driver...

Had dark glasses on

And a ball hat
almost covering his eyes,

And you could tell
that the person was a large man

Because of the broad shoulders
and the size of the head

And the size of the neck,

But I'm unable
to identify the driver.

I just take note,
and I wonder why.

So I get in the pool,

And I'm swimming around
with my daughter,

And I kind of forget
about the car,

And then when I get
out of the pool,

The car is still sitting there,

And I have this feeling
that this person

Is staring directly at me.

It's as if I can feel
the weight of his gaze.

Now, he's wearing glasses,
so I can't be certain,

And he doesn't look
familiar to me,

But I can't deny that it feels
like he's staring at me.

It makes me uncomfortable enough

To where I go over
to my pool bag,

Get a piece of paper
and a pencil

With the intention
of writing down the car plate.

When I look up, the man's gone.

I don't pay any attention to it.

I brush it off.

Then, several more times
that summer,

While I'm at the pool
with my daughter,

There's another strange car.

It's never the same car...

But the driver is always
wearing dark glasses,

A hat pulled over his eyes,

And he's slumped down
in the car,

And he's not always
parked in the same spot.

Sometimes it's in front of me.

Sometimes it's more
directly behind me,

But it's always in direct
relationship to the pool.

I begin to get uneasy about it.

It feels like this person
is always staring at me.

So I mention it
to the manager of the pool,

And he kind of
brushes off my concern.

It's, you know, probably
a friend of a fellow resident.

It's a delivery driver.

And I want to believe him,

So I do, yet the car keeps
making appearances at the pool.

One day, it was evening,

And the sun
was beginning to set,

And this is the first time
this driver made a mistake.

He arrived in a car
with deeply tinted windows,

So this time he didn't have
a hat on or dark glasses,

But what he didn't realize
is the sun setting in the sky

Was shining
right in his back window.

I could easily, clearly see
his silhouette.

And I knew that silhouette.

And then I didn't wonder who
was coming in my house anymore

I knew.

Two years before, one night,

A girlfriend and I
went out for a ladies' night.

A man approached me in a bar.

He was the man
that I had met in the bar.

And he seemed interesting.

I casually gave him my number.

He didn't seem
too enamored with me.

I wasn't too impressed with him,

But I thought maybe I would
enjoy spending time with him,

And we casually saw each other.

Then I stopped seeing him.

I suppose there were moments
where I wondered

If he was the man stalking me.

And then I remembered
his birthday.

It had been him all along.

October 4th.

When you translate that
to the hours on a clock,

It becomes 10:04.

From the very beginning,

He was leaving weird clues

As to who
was behind the madness.

This casual man floating
on the outskirts of my life...

Is truly the madman at my door.

I froze,
and I was concerned enough

That I gathered up my stuff

And I gathered my daughter,
and we went home,

And one of the reasons
that I was so troubled

Is I had never told this man
where I lived.

We were in
a casual relationship.

I had been to his house,

But as a single mom,

He had never been invited
to my house.

There was no reason
he should know where I live.

So I sent him a text.

I said, "are you sitting
outside my pool?"

He didn't say anything.

I did not have
the financial resources

To buy a g*n.

I did not have
the financial resources

To buy
a trained german shepherd.

I did not have
the financial resources

To outfit my entire life
with cameras and devices.

Calling police didn't work.

I stopped calling police.

I lost faith in my family,

My friends, law enforcement,

And most importantly, myself.

Later that night,
I'm lying in bed,

And I get a text from him,
and it says,

"you are a crazy b*tch."

I deleted his number,
I didn't hear from him again,

And for a while,
I went on with my life.

There was a vent in our house
that never worked.

I went to open it up
to check it out.

There was a baby monitor.
It was on.

I didn't think much of it

Until I learned how easily it is

To turn a baby monitor
into a listening device.

The stalking escalated,

And I would have to suffer
for not wanting him.

I would now see him in his car

Parked outside my job.

I would see him following me

Around stores.

I would see him sitting
in the parking lot

When we came out
of the movie theater.

It's as if he wanted me
to know, "you're surrounded."

The only way I would ever
defeat this man is if I left.

He was never going to stop.

I took what little money I had.

I threw away my cell phone.

And in my car, I put

Whatever belongings would fit...

And in the middle of the night,

We left town.

I drove south until I
couldn't drive south anymore.

I landed in mississippi
on the mississippi gulf coast,

Thinking,
"who would look for me there?"

By now, my ex-husband
didn't live there anymore.

He had relocated
to denver, colorado,

So there were
no real connections.

The harmony of the water and sky

Was just such good medicine
for my soul.

My daughter goes to school.

She's developing new friends.

And for a while, I really
began to grow stronger.

Then one day, I'm driving
to the post office

When I see a pickup truck
at the post office.

Sitting inside is my stalker.

I really began to believe
that I had defeated him.

And when I saw him,
he was smiling...

Making me feel like

He knew where I was all along,

And he just wanted me
to believe I was safe.

I'm now a thousand miles
away from home,

I have no family in town,

And I'm being hunted
like an animal.

And then one day,
an epiphany came to me...

That felt so beautiful
and possible.

That I was going to become
an over-the-road truck driver

'cause if you are going
to follow me, buddy,

Follow me now.

By this time, my daughter's
graduating from high school,

And she's enrolled in college,

And I decide that if I'm going
to change this story,

I have to do something
so drastic.

I got my cdl, and I began a life

As an over-the-road
truck driver,

And I was gone
for months and months.

By and by,
he just couldn't keep up.

And while I was out there
on the road,

I saw america the beautiful.

I know what she is now.

I found myself
out there on the road.

I became a woman
I had never met before.

I stopped hearing from him.

I stopped seeing him.

I issued
my own brand of justice.

- In July 2014, I'm living
with my wife in the u district

In a three-story condo
north of seattle,

And we have two cats,

And their names
are gizmo and mogwai.

- My brother and I
get along really well,

But I would say I'm
much more outgoing than he is.

He's really, really sweet
and kind

And can be really goofy

When you get to know him
and when he's comfortable,

But I think I would be more
considered an extrovert,

And he'd be more considered
an introvert.

- I was a billing specialist

At a seattle-based
coffee company,

And my wife
was a graphic designer.

We both were kind
of young professionals

And living in the u district

In this really cool
historical, like, condo.

- The place my brother lives
is really cool.

It's an older building.

It's really pretty.

So my brother and his wife
live on the second floor,

And when you open
their front door,

It goes right
into the living room.

- So it was July,
and it was almost 90.

Most places don't have
air conditioning,

So I was not looking forward
to spending time indoors

When I got home from work.

- So he and his wife,

They decide to go out
for a nice dinner

And just kind of enjoy
the breeze

And some drinks and some food,

And after that's done,
they head home.

- We get home at 9:00.
It's dark.

We had a long day,

And we just wanted to go to bed.

Then we see the gate
to the courtyard is ajar.

It's not very unusual
because there's construction.

There was people renovating
their condos that summer.

It didn't even register to me
that anything was wrong.

We unlock the door,
and the first unusual thing

I see is just the living room
is just in disarray.

Things were just not
how I thought we had left 'em.

- There was just,
like, things out of place.

I think it was a... maybe, like,
a piece of carry-on luggage

Was out of the closet.

I know that they both kind of
blamed each other for that.

- My wife thought
that I had made a mess,

And she was kind of
looking at me like,

"what were you doing?"

- My brother's personality
is... I would say

He's non-confrontational.

- I was certain I didn't do it,

But it wasn't something I
wanted to get in a fight over

After having such a...
Like, a nice evening.

I'm like,
"oh, my wife probably did it,

But I'm not gonna start
an argument."

- I know my brother
to be a little bit messy,

So it wouldn't be
totally surprising for him

To maybe be getting into
the closet, pull something out,

And just have it sitting there
and forget to put it back in.

- I just felt something
was unusual,

But we weren't alarmed
at that point.

- So the next thing
my brother notices

Is the kitchen breakfast nook.

- The window screen
looks busted,

Like it'd been tampered with.

- So he lives
on the second story,

And this window
is off a courtyard,

And it's not
a normal size window.

It's pretty small.

- When I looked at the screen,
I just thought

Maybe, like, some kid
could have crawled through it,

Maybe with the help
of another kid

Being propped up
and climbing inside.

- The idea that anyone
could get in through that

Is pretty unlikely,
unless they're a small person.

Plus, how do they even
get up two stories?

'cause there's not
really anything to grab onto

Except maybe... I mean, I don't
even wanna to call it a tree.

It's more like a twig.

- The next unusual thing
was the door

To our bedroom had been closed,

Which was actually
pretty startling.

We never close that door.

It's always open
in the summertime.

When we saw the door closed,

My wife and I
knew something was up.

So I open the door,

And I walk into
this pitch black room.

All the shades
and curtains were shut.

- And it's
extremely hot in there

Because all of the blinds
are closed, which is also odd.

- Immediately,
I flipped on the light,

And that's when
we saw the chaos.

The room looked like it
had been ransacked.

- Just things everywhere.
Drawers opened.

Shoes everywhere.
Clothes everywhere.

I think they might have
even noticed right away,

Some things were broken.

It was just a complete disaster.

- It looked like someone
rifled through

Every single drawer
looking for something.

We just were shocked.

And so I looked in every room
and, like, closet.

I mean, I just did
a quick sweep of the house

And felt pretty confident
there was no intruder.

Immediately,
I was just worried, like,

I thought maybe
my wife's jewelry was stolen,

And maybe my credit cards
and my passport and some cash.

Those were the things

That would've
been valuable to steal.

So in my mind, it shifted
from a theft to vandalism.

So the next thing
we find unusual,

There was 2 1/2-inch screws
shoved in the crack

Between the door
and the door jamb.

- They were certainly not from
their collection of tools

Or anything...
Like, they came from somewhere.

So it starts to feel less
like a... just, like, a break-in

To steal things,
and more like something else.

- We... we were a little spooked,

So we called the cops
and reported a break-in.

And then while we were waiting,

That's when my wife noticed
a brand-new jar of lotion

Had been emptied out everywhere.

- There was lotion on handles.

There was lotion
all over clothing.

There was lotion
inside of shoes.

- And the doorknob to the closet

And just kind of everywhere.

- Normally, if you have
someone in your space

Touching your stuff,
you don't necessarily know

Everywhere their hands
have been,

But when you have lotion
in the mix,

I just... it just,
ugh, creeps me out.

It just ups the ante of how much

Everything was handled.

- It felt like a violation,

People going through our stuff,

And I was thinking,

"why would someone
do this to us?

Do we have any enemies?
Were we randomly picked?"

Things weren't making sense.

- I think at first,

I didn't realize
the extent of the damage.

I'm just hearing things like,
"drawers are open."

How did someone get in here?

There's random screws
everywhere.

It just felt too odd

That a person would do
something like this.

- It just felt
really offsetting.

So while we were waiting
for the police,

I left my wife
just in the bedroom

To... while she was going
through the jewelry

And stuff that was on the floor.

I wanted to check
my neighbor's place

Just to see if they might
have had a break-in as well,

But they had no indication
of a break-in.

So the police arrive
in about 45 minutes.

We showed the police around.

We kind of showed them
the living room,

And then we showed him
the bedroom,

And so they kind of walked
around the bedroom

And looked around.

They had asked us to show 'em
the bathroom to see maybe

If anything
was missing in the bathroom.

They were kind of thinking

The same thing we were thinking.

Like, thinking it was
a very strange story as well.

The police were just
as confused as we were.

I showed them
where I thought, like,

An intruder
could have gotten in.

To them, it just looked
like it was very unlikely

That a person could have
climbed through there.

So they were just kind of trying

To just figure out
why this would happen.

- They definitely think
the situation is bizarre.

They take a look around.
They check closets.

They, you know,
take some pictures,

But ultimately,
they don't find anything

That they can really run with,
so they decide to leave.

- After the police left,
I continued to feel uneasy,

But my wife was calm
through the entire thing,

But she was just as confused
as I was.

We were finding more things
that didn't make sense.

That's when we noticed
my wife's shoes

All spread out
all over the floor.

Tennis shoes, her boots,

Just... the insoles
were taken out of some of 'em.

My wife was wondering, like,

Why were they so focused
on these shoes?

- She has really cute shoes.

So it was interesting to me
that they seemed

Like they might have
been tried on

And that there was lotion
all over the shoes.

So I think at some point

She's trying
to just collect the shoes,

Put things away, and she finds

A pair that are not her shoes.

- The shoes were
low-cut women's boots,

And they were something similar

To what my wife would've worn,
but they were larger.

My wife was pretty calm,
and then she looked

Over at me and told me,

"these boots
are not even mine."

- I think finding weird screws
around is one thing,

But to find a pair of shoes
that do not belong

To anyone who lives there,

That says there's...
Someone has been inside here.

It's unmistakable,
and they removed their shoes,

Which shows a certain level
of comfort

That they might have had.

- It just didn't make any sense.

Even if it was vandalism, the...

The shoe thing
just seemed extra violating,

And if they were
just trying on your clothes,

It just, like, added a layer of
creepiness to the whole thing.

So between the lotion,
the screws, and now, like,

The shoes all spread around
and tampered with,

It was just...
It was still very unusual.

Like, we were...
More questions than answers.

So we're cleaning up,
and around the room,

We find clumps of blonde hair
that had been cut,

Probably, like,
half a dozen or so

In various places in our room

Just kind of, like,
intermixed with the shoes.

Like, one was on the bed.

It was just another layer
of ickiness to the whole thing.

So at this point,
we didn't think

To call the police again
because we thought

It would be
kind of embarrassing,

And we didn't have
any additional info

Really to give them.

- So it's after midnight.

They've been
doing some cleaning,

And my brother hears
what I guess he's describing

As wheezing,
like a weird breathing sound.

- I heard this wheezing sound
several times...

And it seemed to be louder
near the floor.

- So he leans down,
kind of at the end of the bed.

- Then I realized the sound
was coming from under the bed.

- And he assumes, because
one of his cats has asthma,

That maybe
the cat's under the bed

Having trouble breathing.

- But I looked to my side...

And I saw both cats
just staring at me...

Which really scared me

Because that meant there
was something under the bed.

At first, my wife
didn't hear the noise.

She thought I was overreacting,
and then she heard the noise.

After she heard the noise,
we get out of that room,

And she slams the door.

We thought it was an animal
that was under the bed,

So we were trying to figure out
what to do next.

Should we call animal control,

Or should we call
the police again?

We didn't know what to do.

We finally decided
to call the police again.

We told the dispatcher

We thought there was
an animal under our bed,

And she told us to leave
the house immediately...

So we left.

- Brian gets freaked out.

He manages to convince
his wife to leave.

They slam the door.

They realize they've left
gizmo, their cat, inside there

With god knows what.

- My wife bravely went in

And scooped him up
and saved him.

- And they decide to wait

For the cops
outside of the building.

- The cops arrive
within minutes.

The same cops,
the same two cops.

This time, the cops
are taking it more serious.

I let them in the door.

As the door opens,
I see a tall figure

Dressed in black,

Standing in our living room,
holding shoes

And trying to get
into the closet door.

I felt my stomach drop,
and I just felt uneasy,

And it hit me
like a ton of bricks.

Just the sudden realization
that this person

Had been in our apartment
the whole time.

- I think at this point,

Everything has
continued to escalate,

So to see an actual person,
and to see that it's a woman,

None of it makes sense.

Why she's there,
how she got in there.

How long was she
actually under the bed?

- So the police handcuff her

And take her
out of the apartment,

And as she was talking
to the police outside,

I got a better look of her.

She kind of had scraggly hair.

She was very tall,
and she was laughing

And, like, just joking around
with the cops,

And, like,
kind of being a little flirty.

Police told us this person

Was known for trespassing
in construction sites,

So the screws
kind of made sense,

And then also
that she had been up for days

And that she was paranoid.

She thought people
were after her.

So the police leave,

And we go back in our apartment.

There's still several hours
of cleaning to be done

'cause we didn't know
what to do.

We were still running
on adrenaline.

We wanted to make
the apartment whole again,

So we decided
just to stay up and clean.

- They've cleared
enough stuff away

That they can actually
look under the bed,

So brian grabs a flashlight.

- And I shine a flashlight
under the bed,

And we find
our biggest kitchen knife.

Another wave of anxiety,
like, went through me.

It's 2:00 in the morning,
and it hit me,

Like, what kind of danger

We potentially
could have been in.

- It's really disturbing
to think about.

She had that the whole time,

And as he's shining
the light around,

He notices...

- A needle

And pieces of fabric and stuff.

- There's fabric coming from
the bottom of the box spring

Because she had been
stabbing the bottom of the bed.

- That we had been sitting on
all night.

- My brother tells me
about the knife.

It's just... it's horrifying

Because who knows
what her mindset was?

But just the idea that she
could have harmed them.

She could have, you know,
slashed at their feet.

I don't know.

It just... it makes
my skin crawl, to be honest.

- So it hit me pretty slowly.

I think I definitely
couldn't sleep that week.

It just was a... it wasn't like

I was scared of things
under the bed anymore.

It was just
this whole violation.

I mean, I was just trying
to figure out, like,

What motivated her to choose us,

And how long had she been
in our apartment,

And what was going
through her mind?

- Who knows?

Maybe she was planning
on staying there.

- It was really disturbing.

Things could have gone so wrong.

Just me thinking about that
gave me anxiety,

Even though everything
turned out fine.

I just keep thinking
about what if.

- I hated that my brother
had to go through this.

I just think
it's such a violation,

And I didn't like
that it would change

The way he would feel
in his own home.

He's just so sweet and kind

And doesn't deserve
something like this,

So it was very upsetting
to hear that,

You know, he was disturbed

And uncomfortable
in his own bedroom.

- So the weeks
after this intrusion,

The first thing we did
was we ordered a new bed.

We didn't want to sleep
in that bed anymore.

It kind of felt a little gross.

And then a couple
of weeks later,

We'd also painted
the whole room.

So we kind of gave it a refresh,

And we just kind of made it
feel like a different room.

We never thought
about leaving that apartment.

We like living there.

- I'm not surprised
he's still living there.

It's a really rad apartment,
and it's a great neighborhood,

So it makes sense
that he'd wanna stay there

And not let somebody ruin
his home for him.

- We love the place,
the neighborhood.

We just wanted
to continue living there,

Despite the craziness
that happened that summer.

- I was resting, and I heard
something behind me.

- From the base of my stairs,

I could hear my attic door
being opened.

- We open the door,

And there's my best friend,
like, crying and just frantic.

- And he told me I needed
to crawl and not look back.

He's gonna sh**t me right here,
and I'm gonna die.