01x10 - Dirty Laundry and Neighborhood Watch

[bunniefuu]

- When I was telling people
about these strange things,

I didn't feel like
I was going crazy,

But I felt like
I sounded like I was crazy.

- They felt like
it was escalating.

It was really scary.

- I think
I was in denial at first.

- There's no reason
I would be missing

My bathing suit bottoms.

I had the tops,

And just the bottoms
were missing.

- Oh, my god, a phrogger
is watching me sleep.

- When it finally sinks in

That someone entered the home
while I was sleeping,

It was terrifying.

- 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 want to 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.

- I grew up in monett, missouri.

It's a really small town.

There's just
a couple little churches.

There's one school.

A very small class size
of maybe 30 people.

- Heidi was always independent.

I didn't ever have
to really watch over her.

She kept herself entertained.

- If heidi wanted something,
heidi was gonna get it,

Or she wasn't gonna do it.

She's very strong-willed.

- I got married really young,
and after I got divorced,

I was kind of ready
to get out on my own.

So I moved to tulsa, oklahoma.

I was excited to move to tulsa,

To meet people my age,
to socialize, to go to school.

- As her mom,
I was a little concerned

About it being a bigger town.

We had lived there previously.

- It was only, like, an hour,
hour and a half from home,

So it was close to home,

But it was also far enough away

That I had my independence

And I could figure out
what I wanted to do.

I had just got a job

Waitressing
at a little restaurant,

So now, all of a sudden,
I could go out with friends

And meet new people.

I'd just turned 21,

So I was, like, going out
to bars for the first time,

Making friends that were my age.

I was young, and I was,
like, just starting over,

Starting life.

- Heidi has always dated people
that I did not care for.

It seems to be
a fatherly kind of thing.

That nobody's good enough
for your little girl,

But heidi really tended
to bring home the worst.

I mean, just...
She was a jerk magnet.

- My dad's always
worried about me.

so, of course he was worried.

But he's always been
so supportive of me

And my decisions.

I think he was just proud of me

That I'd made this choice
on my own

To go and do this.

I got accepted
into ultrasound school.

I found an apartment
on the westside of town.

It was a two-story apartment,
and they were going to be

Putting me on the second
floor, with a balcony.

It felt a little bit safer
than a ground floor apartment.

I had my own stairs that go up
to my individual door.

It wasn't
the greatest neighborhood.

It wasn't the best part of town.

But it was really convenient.

It was right next to the school.

I was comfortable there.

- Heidi had told me
where she was moving to,

Which I was familiar
with that side of town

From being in tulsa before.

And I was concerned about it.

She described the area.

It was very, very crowded,
busy apartment

Where should couldn't
find parking a lot of times.

So she would have
to walk to her apartment,

Sometimes at night,
so I was concerned about that.

I was so concerned I even
gave her a bottle of mace

To put on her keychain.

- One morning, I had school,

So I just get up and get ready
to go to school.

And, you know,
I'm getting dressed.

And I look for my underwear

And I just notice

There's less pairs
than I originally had.

Just here and there,
kind of like

When you lose a sock
in the dryer.

Just a few pairs
were going missing.

I thought it odd, but I just
kind of continued on my day.

I didn't make a big ordeal
out of it.

It's a little bit frustrating,

But you just
move about your day.

- So, one night,
she calls me and tells me

That she's had
some underwear missing.

I wasn't that concerned
about it at first,

Because she has
misplaced things before,

And then she usually finds them.

- I had a friend
that had a pool,

And over the summer,

We would have pool parties
at her house periodically.

So, I was looking
for my swimming suit,

And I couldn't find
any swimming suit bottoms.

There's no reason
I would be missing

My bathing suit bottoms.

I had the tops, and just
the bottoms were missing.

I started telling friends
at school

That my underwear
are going missing.

And they just laughed.

They thought it was funny,
and they would laugh at it.

I didn't think about calling
police over something like,

You know, my underwear missing,

Or setting detectives
on the missing underwear case.

I told my mom and my family
that this was happening,

And they said,

"are you sitting with
your clothes in the laundry?"

Which I don't.

Usually, I'll just go
to the laundromat.

And I'll put my clothes in,

I'll go back upstairs,
I'll watch a movie.

After about an hour so,
I'll go check on them.

And so,
they were left unattended,

So I assumed that
somebody had to have

Been stealing my underwear
out of the laundromat.

So, the next time
I went to the laundromat,

I sat down with my laundry.

And I would just take my laptop

And I'd, you know,
do homework or play music

Or movies on my laptop

While I was waiting
for my laundry to finish,

So, that way, I made sure
whatever I took down there

Came back with me.

The people that I saw coming
in and out doing their laundry

Seemed like
they were with their kids

And with their family,
and nobody looked suspicious.

Nobody looked like they would
be an underwear thief.

It was over several weeks
that I was

Taking my laundry down,
bringing it back.

And any time I took it down,

I came back, I folded them,
I counted the pairs.

Nothing was going missing
from that laundromat.

That's about when I thought,
since the underwear

Wasn't going missing
from the laundromat,

Then it had to have been going
missing from my apartment.

My friends don't have a key.
My parents don't have a key.

I don't have people
in and out of my apartment.

To me, the only other person

That would have had a key
or access to my apartment

Would me maintenance.

So, I go
to the apartment management,

And I said, "okay,
I know this sounds crazy,

"but I've had underwear missing.

"is there any way
that a maintenance guy

Could be coming
into my apartment doing that?"

They assured me.

"there's no way

"that our maintenance men
would be doing that.

They're not going
into your apartment."

- I don't know that that really
made me feel much better,

Because as somebody
who manages apartments,

I know the maintenance man
could go in there

And the management
may not know about it.

- I never had met
the maintenance guy,

Saw the maintenance guy.

I had no idea
if it even was a guy.

It could have been a girl.

I just kind of assumed

It was whoever had a key
in maintenance.

The underwear missing,

It didn't just happen
in a week or two weeks.

It was months of slowly
missing my underwear.

I got to the point where I did
not have any underwear left.

I went and bought hundreds
of dollars of nice underwear

That I replaced them with,

And those started going missing.

I just could not afford to keep
buying expensive underwear,

So I got to the point where
I just quit wearing underwear,

'cause I was like,
whoever is coming in

And stealing them,
that'll show them.

They can't steal them anymore
if I don't wear them.

I am very independent,
but I think that

I really did want to get a dog
to have a companion,

And also for security.

So I went to humane society

And I found
this perfect, little dog.

He was about the right size.

Puck's the name
that they already gave him.

And he had been there
for several months

And they were about
to put him down,

And I kind of feel like
I saved him.

- She told me her experience
about picking out puck.

And so, I was happy that
she would have a companion,

Like, not to be alone,
for one thing,

And then also to have something

That would maybe help
keep her safe.

- So, it's about
- 9:00 or 10:00 at night.

I was in the living room,

Just talking to a friend
on the phone,

And puck was in the bedroom

And just started barking
like crazy.

This wasn't just a little bark,

Like a dog hears
something outside.

This was like
there was something there

That he was barking at.

One of the reasons
that I got him

And he made such
a great apartment dog

Was because he just
did not bark that often.

He was a very quiet dog.

So, for puck to bark
like that at something,

It's very unusual.

I am very, very nervous.

I don't have a weapon
or anything,

But I walk to the bedroom

To see what it is
that he's barking at.

I look around the corner,

And I see him standing
in the bedroom,

Staring at the closet,

And he is barking ferociously
at something in the closet.

There's obviously
something there.

I was terrified.

I just got up the courage.

I went, and I didn't
even look in the closet.

I grabbed him by his collar,

And I dragged him
out of the bedroom,

And I shut the bedroom door.

After that,
I just sat on my couch,

And I was just shaking
and upset.

He had calmed down,
and I had calmed down.

And then, I convinced myself

That I'm being absurd
and it's nothing

And I slept on the couch
that night.

The next morning,

Whenever I felt like
I was calmed down

And it was light out
and I felt safer,

I had to get ready for school.

So, I go into my bedroom.

And I look in the closet.

I don't see anything,
and nobody's there.

I feel like if there was
something in that closet,

It would have came out
into the living room.

And I feel much safer.

I really became the kind of
person that had blinders on.

If everything's safe
and I'm safe, then I'm okay.

And just block this out,
and you're okay.

Don't make a big deal
about every bump

And sound that you hear.

Every morning,
when I would leave for work,

I would make sure my doors
were all closed and locked.

And one day, I came home,
I walk up my stairs.

My door's definitely locked,
and I unlock it.

I walk in,

And the sliding glass door
is standing wide open.

I was scared.

And it just kind of hit me
in my gut.

And my first thought was,

Somebody had obviously
been inside my apartment.

- So, when I come home
to my sliding glass door open,

It definitely spooked me.

I felt like
there was somebody there.

Like, that's the point I
should have called the police,

But I didn't want help
from anybody.

Like, no matter what, unless
it's, like, dire straits,

I do not want anybody
to help me out.

I can do this.
It's fine.

I handle one situation
one day at a time.

So, the first thing
that I did was

To walk through the apartment

And make sure
nobody was in there.

I just had
a one-bedroom apartment,

So I walked
through the living room.

I peeked my head
into the kitchen.

I checked the bathroom,

And then, of course,
the bedroom.

And the closet, as well.

And nobody was there.

- The sliding glass door
was a concern.

The guys heidi had been dating
or seeing were pretty sketchy,

And so, the first thing that
really came to my mind was,

Hey, one of these idiots
is doing something stupid.

- That night, I'm sitting
in my living room.

It's late evening.
It's dark outside.

I hear a bump on the ceiling.

Since it is apartments,

I thought, maybe somebody's up
there installing something.

Maybe they're fixing an antenna.

But this was 9:00
or 10:00 at night.

I'm staring at the ceiling,

Wondering what could
have been up there.

I mean, it sounded like
there was definitely a person

Scuttling up on the roof.

I was talking on the phone
at the time,

And then I told them
that I had heard something.

And then, we just kind of
continued on our conversation.

It was very weird, and it
definitely stuck in my mind.

So, my friend had
come over that evening

To do something studying.

We had a huge test
that was coming up,

So we were just
gonna cram all night.

We had spent some time
studying in the living room.

And, at some point, we decided
we needed to take a break,

And we decided we were
gonna just take a walk,

Stretch our legs,

And then get back to studying
when we got back.

I left my phone behind.

We had just gone out
and come back,

And I know I didn't
take my phone with me.

As soon as we got back,
I pretty quickly noticed

That I couldn't find my phone.

I thought it was
in the couch cushions.

We searched the couch.
We searched under the couch.

And we pretty much almost
tore that place apart,

And it was completely gone.

My friend,
she was the most honest,

Trustworthy person that I know.

And it crossed my mind, like,
where else would it have gone?

Like, she had to have taken it.

But then, at the same time,

Like, there's no way
that she would do that.

I would hate
to ever accuse her of that.

But she's the only one
that was there

And it just went missing.

It was not in that apartment.

The phone was never recovered.

I went and got
a replacement phone

With the same phone number.

I began getting random phone
calls from a blocked number.

I would answer the phone,

And the person on the other end,

You could hear them breathing.

- At first, you just think
it's a wrong number,

Somebody doing a phone prank.

But these continued.

It was months
of getting these phone calls

From these blocked numbers.

Somebody was deliberately
doing this to me specifically.

Finally, I got frustrated,
and I said,

"why don't you
just say something?

"talk to me.

"what's the point
of sitting there,

"breathing into the phone?

"I know that you're there.
I can hear you.

Say something."
and they would just hang up.

I got pretty fed up with it,
to the point that I was like,

Okay, I'm going
to unblock this number

And find out who this is.

I got a phone app that you
could unblock a blocked number,

And it would show you
what the phone number was.

And pretty quickly,
it unblocked the number.

And I called the number,

And a man answered.

I asked, "have you
been calling my phone?

A number... this number
has been calling my phone."

He said, "no,
I have not been calling you.

I don't know
who's been calling you."

I said, "look, is anybody
using your phone besides you?"

And he said,
"my brother uses my phone.

He's the only one."

I said, "okay, tell your brother

If he doesn't stop calling me,
I will contact the police."

I did not ever receive
another phone call after that.

I talk to my mom
all the time on the phone,

So I was constantly
feeding her little bits

Of, like,
what's going on here or there.

My mom was
an apartment complex manager,

So she knew the ins and outs
of apartments pretty well.

- Me and her stepdad were both
talking to her at that time.

We told her to check
her apartment for attic access.

- She said,
"there's an attic access

In not all apartments
but some."

She told me,
"go check your closet

And see
if there's an attic access."

The first thing that I did
was go straight to my closet.

And there was
an attic access there.

There was a wooden board
sitting over a hole.

It wasn't drilled in.
It wasn't locked.

It was just a board
sitting on a hole.

- So, I said, "you need to get
that nailed shut, immediately."

- So, I start peeking my head
up into the attic.

The second I started
to put my head up there,

I just got a very cold chill.

And I got terrified,
and I just...

I had to jump down right away.

I couldn't even look.

I also was talking
to my brother,

And he said, "hey, a good idea...

"just put a piece of tape
across that board.

"you'll know
if the board's been moved

"if the tape is broken.

So then. You'll know
if somebody's coming in."

The idea of that being
the case and that being true

Was so scary to me
that I was just like,

"I'm not gonna put the tape
on the door."

I... I want to know,
but I don't want to know,

'cause it's so scary,

That it's easier to just,
like, "no, that can't be it.

That can't be it.
I'm not gonna do it."

One day, the apartment
management had contacted me

And told me that they were going

To be installing lighting

And they had to go up
into the attic to install it.

I made sure
to put my dog in a crate

So that the maintenance guys
could come in

And install the lighting.

I went to work.
I was working that day.

And it was towards
the end of the workday

I received a phone call.

It came across on my phone

That it was the apartment
complex calling me.

But whenever
I answered the phone,

It wasn't
the apartment management.

It was a police officer.

And he said,
"how quickly can you be home?"

Something has happened.

- Heidi called me one afternoon,

And she sounded very upset.

She said,
"the police just called me.

They told me to come
to the apartment."

- I rushed home
as quick as I could.

And I just remember
driving home,

And I'm shaking,
and I start bawling.

I have this whole
mental breakdown.

I pull up to the apartments,

And there are
several cops there.

There's a sex crimes detective
that wants to talk to me.

She actually goes into detail
and explains to me

The items that
they had found in my attic.

They had found a knife,

Mace,

Condoms,

Lubrication.

There were pictures of me

And all of my underwear
that had been missing.

- The police found

The person they believed
to be responsible.

From the tracks
through the attic,

It was pretty clear
where the person came from,

And so,
he was apprehended quickly.

- The detective told me that
his name was carlos perez.

He was a tenant there
at the apartments as well.

He also had an apartment
on the second floor

With an attic access,

And it was in the same building
as mine.

So, our apartments
were the only two apartments

With attic access.

He'd been living in that
apartment for four years,

With a family...
With a wife and children.

So, crime of opportunity.

He climbed up there,

And he cut through the firewall

And was coming down
into my apartment.

They found him in his apartment

And arrested him that day.

They found more of my underwear
in his apartment as well.

Police found holes over my bed,

In my living room,
and in my bathroom.

There were multiple holes
where he had been watching me.

Everything came full circle
to me.

Everything clicked.

All of these random things
that were happening

Just suddenly made sense,

And I had this, like,
wave of emotions.

Like, terrified, for one.

Almost relief
at having a conclusion

And having answers as to why
these things were happening.

But then, the fear
overtook that as well.

The thought of somebody
being inside of your home and...

You feel like
you're safe in your home,

And somebody
violating that space.

- So, my... my worst fears
are being realized.

Yes, it's clear someone
was there to... to do harm.

- Just the thought
that somebody was, like,

Watching her all that time
is really scary.

And, as a parent,
you always think that

There's something more
that you could have done

To prevent something like that.

- I felt vindicated,

Having all of these things
come to light.

I wasn't crazy.

I finally had proof
to tell other people,

Like, all of these things,
they really were happening.

I had a phrogger
in my apartment.

I moved out that night.

I took my things
and went to my dad's house.

I never went back
to that apartment.

Shortly after that,
I moved out of tulsa.

- She's still happy-go-lucky.

She just doesn't want something
like this to change her.

And she doesn't want
to live a fearful life.

She is a little more cautious
of her surroundings.

- Looking back,
I was pretty young and naive

And very nonchalant
about things.

I think that I was trying
to put it out of my mind,

Because being a single woman
living by yourself,

You can't be scared of
every little bump and creak

That you hear
and investigate everything.

You can't live in fear.

You have to be able to put
blinders on a little bit.

At this time you do it,

You don't realize
that you're doing it.

It's just later
that you realize,

"man, I was really just
kind of living in a bubble."

This definitely
opened my eyes to things.

I was more aware
of the surroundings.

I wasn't just in a safe bubble.

This could have gotten
so much worse.

- In 2016, I was living
in bucktown, chicago.

Bucktown's really interesting

Because it has
a pretty cool medley

Of new buildings, old buildings.

More antiquated structures
that are in the area.

A lot of businesses
fill in those places,

So it's got a unique vibe to it.

- I'm in it sales,
covering the chicagoland area.

I moved to bucktown

Because the area of bucktown
was up and coming.

You know, it was really
a place to do things,

Walkable distance to
great food, great restaurants,

And can easily get into the city

And out of the city for,

You know, the various meetings
that I had for work.

So, at that time,
when I was living in bucktown,

I lived in a duplex up,

Meaning I had the rights
to the rooftop as well.

So, you could walk up
into the unit,

Second floor, third floor,

And I had the rooftop access

With full view of
the full skyline of chicago,

With only access for my unit.

So, that was a big reason
I purchased that unit.

At the time, I had a girlfriend,

Who would, you know,
come stay at the place

And, you know, visit often.

- The sunsets from the rooftop
are incredible.

The city skyline has
this sort of dusk view,

So great lookout point
in the summer.

- I'm living in chicago in my
bucktown home with two dogs:

My younger puppy, max,

And then
I had my older dog, linux.

Both max and linux followed me
like a shadow.

Wherever I'm at,
they're at my feet.

With anybody that comes
to a city like chicago,

From outside the city,

It's very easy to get caught up
in the daytime activities...

How nice it looks,
people are out and about.

It's one of those things
where, on the outside,

You can kind of see and feel
safe, and things look good.

But at night,
certain things happen,

Certain people come out.

In general,
I never saw a lot of crime.

Never had to deal with anything.

So, feeling as safe as I do
in that area of chicago,

I didn't actually have
full security systems

And things of that nature,
which I should have, right?

So, I have a security camera
so that,

In the event I have a dog walker

Or a house cleaner come,
I'm able to see that

They're, you know,
doing the right things,

And in and out,
as they should be.

So, Sunday, July 24th,
was like any other Sunday.

That particular day had been
a great day for weather.

Spent most of the day
actually sitting on a hammock

On my upstairs balcony
outside the bedroom.

That Sunday evening,

My girlfriend and I
went out to dinner,

And we walked to a local spot
just down the street,

Like we usually would.

- We couldn't stay out
for the night.

We had a new puppy to tend to.

And they tend to be
pretty high-maintenance,

So we came home,
and we just had a night in.

We were watching television.

And our brand new puppy, max,
is a very clingy guy,

So when we're on the couch,
he's on the couch with us.

We've got our 13-year-old dog

Asleep at our feet
on the living room floor.

Everybody's in one room,
watching tv.

We start watching a show.

End up falling asleep
during the show.

The reason that we had
fallen asleep on the couch

That night
was because of the new dog.

We had to wash the sheets
pretty late in the evening.

He had a accident upstairs,
so we were doing laundry.

And the whole evening
was actually

Pretty out-of-character,
in terms of that.

Normally, we would have
been asleep upstairs.

- So, as if... you know,
any streaming television,

Once you're not
paying attention,

The tv kind of goes to,

"hey, are you still
paying attention to this?"

And it gives you silence, right?

So, there's a point that
that silence broke the noise,

I guess, that had been going
on in the room, and I woke up.

- I'm exhausted.
I'm in zombie mode.

I immediately decide to head
upstairs and take the puppy,

Put him back in his kennel,
and head to the bedroom.

- We put the sheets on the bed
and went to sleep.

- So, I wake up in the morning.

And we have a bench
at the end of the bed,

And I keep my purse there
all the time.

I'm certain I put it there.

I wake up, can't see it,

And start to pester jack
about it.

- My girlfriend said,
"hey, have you seen my purse?"

And that wasn't something
I usually really keep track of.

So, we both kind of went
through the home to see,

Hey, where could the purse
possibly be?

We looked in the bedroom.
We looked in the laundry room.

Went through my office.

Looked
in the downstairs bedroom.

Checked everywhere we could
possibly have left a purse

In the home,
and it wasn't there.

- I was pretty fired up.

In my head, I was convinced he
must have moved it and forgot.

- Told her,
"hey, I'm gonna check

"the security footage
that I have in the house,

And I guaranteed you're walking
out of the house with it."

- He is frustrated.

In his mind, I mistakenly
put it somewhere and forgot.

So, tension was a little high.

- I was pretty steadfast
and sure that that purse

Was gonna be seen walking
out of the house with her.

Kind of almost made a bet
that that was the case.

The security came in my home

Was kind of at the front of
the living room, if you will.

It shows the whole living room
and kind of upstairs as well.

But it gives a great view into
the main area of the home,

So I would have easily
been able to see,

"hey, you walked out
with the purse,

But you didn't return with it."

- He has his security device
hooked up.

So, he goes to the application
in there.

- So, as I'm looking
through the footage,

You can see, you know,
myself on the couch.

You can see the tv to the left,

The kitchen in the background.

To the right, behind me,
is the stairs,

And above that is my office.

And above that,
on the top right,

Is the hallway that leads back
into my master bedroom.

I'm noticing what's going on
in the living room,

What's going on
in the frame that's captured

Some of the frames where
she had walked out of the home,

And there was no purse
in her hand.

Kind of let her know, "okay.

You didn't do it
at that point."

And then, kept looking,
and there was never a point

Where she had left the home
with a purse that day.

So, as I was
fast-forward scrubbing

Through the video footage
that I had,

I started to notice something

Very, very slowly
move into the frame.

Rewind it a little bit,

And then found the perfect spot.

And right around 1:00 a.M.,

There happened to be a figure

At the top right, at the stairs.

- So, we stop the footage
immediately.

The purse is completely
out of our heads.

We knew we were down
on the couch at that point,

And there's a human being
standing

At the top of the stairs
that shouldn't have been.

- When I saw the figure
at the top of my stairs,

It was absolute fear.

I am in the house, on the couch,

With my dogs at my feet,

Girlfriend on the couch as well,

And there's this figure
at the top of the stairs

Looking down on us.

- The person standing
at the top of the stairs

Was probably about jack's size.

He had on a hoodie,
looked like sweats.

The footage is
a little bit grainy,

But we could tell from
the footage that it wasn't us.

We don't know who it is.

That was the moment
that, you know, we both had...

Our stomachs kind of dropped
and we realized that,

"holy crap, there was
a stranger standing here."

- My hand starts sweating, and
then I began to quickly think,

My girlfriend,
she didn't lose her purse.

There was somebody in my home
that took it.

- So, we sit there
looking at the footage

For probably ten minutes.

We're trying
to make sense of it.

- He came up
from the ground floor,

Three flights of back steps,
and into the master bedroom.

The door was unlocked
that evening

Because we had been
on the hammock.

And that was literally
the only time

In five years living there
that that door was unlocked.

As I looked
at the security footage,

I notice how quiet he was as
he came in, almost sloth-like.

And that neither of my dogs
woke up,

I didn't wake up.

He was in my house
while we were asleep

For close to 45 minutes.

- When the show ends
and we wake up,

Him leaving the home

Was clearly a reaction
to us waking up.

I think he either heard
or saw movement.

He leaves, and a second later,
we're up off the couch.

I actually went upstairs first,

Probably not 30 seconds
after him.

I never saw anyone up there.

It's crazy, in hindsight,

To think that if he hadn't
immediately vacated the home,

I might have encountered him.

When it finally sinks in that

Someone entered the home
while I was sleeping,

While jack was sleeping,
it was terrifying.

We immediately
called the police.

- When I called the police,
I explained to them

There had been a break-in
in my home

And I wanted to report items
that had been stolen.

- Emotions were high
before they got there.

A lot of back and forth
between us.

We're having a conversation
about:

How could someone
have gotten in our home?

How could we have not noticed?

Someone made it out there
that evening.

A detective was asking us
what happened,

Getting statements, you know,

Maybe giving us
a little peace of mind

To know that
someone's working on this.

- They came,
checked out the home,

And they just mentioned,

You know, in chicago,
these type of things do happen.

- They did ask for a copy of
the security camera footage,

And it was at that point
that we were informed

That we were not the first
people in the neighborhood

To call the police a stranger
matching that description.

Police had encouraged us
to share this.

They wanted
to generate a little buzz

So that people would be
on their guard.

- There's a bucktown
neighborhood watch group.

- So, the neighborhood watch
group had been in place.

This was something
jack was active in.

So, he would go on there
and check.

I think this might have been
his first time

Contributing to
the neighborhood watch page.

He made sure to post the footage

And let people know
what had happened.

- The purpose
for neighbors posting

On this social media group
is strictly for awareness

So that one has knowledge
of criminal events

Going on across the neighborhood

Or even next to their own home.

So, one day, I open
the social media page,

And a resident had posted a
video from inside their home.

And what I see is
a very menacing figure

At the top of his stairs,

Looking down at he
and his girlfriend sleeping.

You can see him emerge from
the shadows in the background

And is looking around
to see what's going on.

And you don't know
what he's gonna do.

He's being very careful
not to disturb anybody.

And the amount of time that
he's there is frightening.

You can see that he's guessing:

Should he continue down the
stairs or should he backtrack?

It's ominous.

After I saw this video,

I needed to get the word out
to the community

That this person was creeping
around the neighborhood.

I posed a question
on our social media page that,

If anybody has seen
this perpetrator,

Recognizes them,

To post their accounts

So that we can crowdsource
and try and figure out

Who this person is
or where he's come from.

- So, as I logged
into the community group

That's there
for the bucktown neighborhood,

There were a ton of people
in the neighborhood posting,

Showing this individual
in the same-looking hoodie

As the person
at the top of my stairs,

Going door-to-door, grabbing
and jiggling door handles,

Looking for unlocked doors.

- After this video was posted,

Neighbors in bucktown
began posting doorbell cams

Of this person,
tight shots of his face.

He was unaware
that he was being recorded,

And people were
posting those images.

- As I alerted
the neighborhood watch group

That also had other issues
that evening,

There was some local media

Who were part of that group
as well.

The media wanted to speak to us,

You know, pretty quickly

To alert other folks in the
neighborhood what had gone on.

- We had agreed to do
a local interview

To help raise awareness.

There's a lot of single women
in that neighborhood,

And that was our aim
in doing the local interview

For the local station.

It was a shock to me
when I got a call

From someone living outside
the area, asking about this.

There was, like, a rain of
those phone calls that week.

- So, on our social media page,

Some comments were
labeling him a "creeper."

So, we had a phrogger
in our community

That became known
as the bucktown creeper.

- I thought the moniker
of "bucktown creeper" was,

Hey, whatever it took
to get the media's attention

And police's attention
to go get the guy.

- That name that they gave him,

I don't know if they just did
it to draw readers or viewers

Or if they actually did it
to benefit people in the area,

But it did create heightened
awareness in the area.

- Jack coming forward
accomplished a lot,

In that the community
rallied around him

And his incident,

Provided intel, video stills,

Passed that along
to law enforcement.

In the next few days,

The amount of submissions
were numerous.

A lot of neighbors were
correlating their information

And had said, "I just saw him
on this corner,"

Or "I saw him
leaving this store."

People had seen him
walking down sidewalks,

Walking down alleys,

Middle of the night,
middle of the day.

We had a predator on our hands,

And you don't know
what that person's capable of.

And so people were
on the lookout for him.

A few days later, a man
was seen in our local library

Using a card to gain access to
the internet terminals there

That had belonged to a victim
of a residential theft.

I went into the library
and talked the librarian

And said,
"that person over there,

"a lot of people have seen him

"creeping
around the neighborhood.

Can you look at
who he's logged in as?"

And she looked at her terminal
and said,

"he's logged in as a woman."

That clearly was not
his library card,

So we knew we had somebody

Who was using a false library
card to surf the internet.

So, he's arrested
in the library,

Taken away by the police.

- When I was contacted and told
that somebody was arrested,

It made me feel better,
sort of at ease

That, you know,
this individual wasn't

Gonna be returning to my home.

Even though I know
he had been arrested,

It put a dark spot
in my mental state

For, one, the city of chicago,

Two, the safety
of my neighborhood.

You know,
a lot of different things

Started to not be so positive
after that time.

- So, this guy was arrested,

And a few days later,
was let go.

- The police had an idea
of who he was,

But nobody was ever charged
for the theft of my purse,

For breaking and entering
into our home.

The security footage
that we provided

Wasn't clear enough
to hold up in court.

Never got my purse back.

We really didn't get
too much follow-up,

Not that we wanted it...
We wanted to put it behind us...

But yeah, there wasn't
a whole lot of closure.

- The community was horrified

When they found out that
this individual was let go.

The assumption was that
he was the same person,

And so, there's a lot of fear

That he's going
to continue creeping.

- The only item stolen
was the purse.

The gentleman
that was in the home,

He looked around a bit,
but I guess,

As the streaming show ended
and it got quiet,

He just walked back out
the way he came

And grabbed the first thing
that came to him.

He grabbed the purse.

- It left a mark
on both of us, I think.

You know, jack started to look
into more security measures.

- From the incident
I endured in chicago,

And went through,
it really opened my eyes

To what can really happen
in a big city, right?

So, you have to keep your head
on a swivel

And just be alert
to your surroundings,

Make sure your doors are locked.

All the things that I didn't
think about as much before

Became a much bigger part
of my life.

In the city of chicago,

It's very hard
to get yourself a weapon,

So I got myself
a bunch of weapons,

Which happened to be hammers

That I placed
in just about every room

In the event I was on a couch

Or in a guest room
or in my office,

If somebody broke into my home.

- I had an uneasiness living
in that house after that.

I think just the dangers that
had been in the neighborhood

And chicago overall

Felt a little closer to home
after that incident.

- I felt honestly violated,
a little bit of ptsd

That someone could be
at my back door.

So, looking out that glass
from time to time

Really changed my outlook
in that bedroom.

- I would be fine
if jack was there,

But I did not like sleeping
in that house alone.

And I still have that, actually.

I don't need someone sleeping
in a bed with me,

But I do not like being
the only person in a building,

And I think that phobia's
definitely been exacerbated

By what happened that night.

- I had
the heart-shocking moment of,

"oh, my god, a phrogger is
in my home watching me sleep."