I'm panicking. I get my phone in my hand.
I call 911. After I heard the glass
shattering and the pounding, we heard like really heavy
footsteps. And I said the dispatcher, He's
in our apartment, he's in our apartment.
And I just remember feeling like frozen with fear from HV Studio.
This is unnerved. Welcome back to the Unnerved
podcast. It's where normal people share
their abnormal stories, and if you enjoy true stories of the
strange and terrifying, then you're in the right place.
I'm your host, Chris Fricke. When you imagine your safe
place, what comes to mind? For most of us, it's likely our
homes. A place where we can let our
guard down and be at ease. The structure of a house is
supposed to provide safety from forces of nature and protect us
from those with evil intentions. But with every protective
fortress there is a weakness. Perhaps a door with a weak lock,
or a window that can easily be broken, or perhaps a fire escape
that leads an intruder straight to you.
In today's story, Liz and her roommate were visited
unexpectedly in the middle of the night by an intruder with
unknown intentions. This is her story.
My name is Liz and I am from Atlanta, Canada, and my story
begins in the summer of 2018. I was living in an apartment
with a roommate. It was a big townhouse that had
been split up into a bunch of apartments and I was getting
ready for work. I had AI was a student at the
time and I had a summer job that I had to get up pretty early
for, so I tended to go to bed around the same time every night
around 11:00 PM, maybe a little bit before.
Cities in Atlanta, Canada are known for being very humid in
the summer, especially the one I live in, and it was one of the
most humid and hot nights I have ever experienced living here.
And I was getting ready for bed. I had put on, I think just like
a big T-shirt because it was that kind of pajama weather.
I guess I got into bed as I was laying there.
It was just so hot that I thought to myself, I should get
up and I should open my windows. So I had two windows in my room
at the time. One was beside my bed.
Some of the windows had been updated, but a lot of them were
like original windows from probably like the 1900s.
While my window beside my bed had a screen in it, there was a
window that led it onto the fire escape across the room for me,
and it did not have a screen in it.
I typically didn't use that window, but I on this night
decided to open it alongside the one that was beside my bed.
So I got up. I opened that window and I laid
back down in bed. I I couldn't get comfortable.
I was just tossing and turning. It was so hot.
It was so humid. The windows weren't really
giving the relief I needed, but I had two thoughts kind of
running through my head at the time.
And I'm kind of an anxious person, so this is pretty common
to happen. The first one was, what if
there's a fire and I'm only wearing a big T-shirt to bed?
And the second one was, what if an animal comes through my
window or a bird or something? Because even though I live in a
city, there's still raccoons, there's pigeons, there's
starlings, there's things like that around.
So I just couldn't get those thoughts out of my head.
I decided to get up. I put on some PJ shorts or
pants, I can't remember which, and I went over to the fire
escape window because it doesn't have a screen in it and I closed
it and I locked it. I got back into bed.
It was probably a little after 11:00 PM at this point and I
managed to fall asleep. The next thing I remember is
just waking up. Remember looking down at the
foot of my bed because I had my phone charging on this kind of
charging station so it was sitting upright and I could see
the time 12:40 AM. I I wasn't a person that would
typically just wake up randomly throughout the night, especially
when I'd only been asleep for like an hour and a half or so.
At that point I just remember kind of like sitting up.
Why am I awake? I kind of felt like this, like a
cute sense of like something woke me up and I need to know
what it is. And as I'm sitting there kind of
trying to get my bearings and whatnot because I'd been
awakened from what felt like a pretty deep sleep, some movement
across the room caught my eye. And as I look across the room
towards this movement through the fire escape window, I see
that what's caught my attention is a person standing out on the
fire escape. My first thought was, oh, what
is my roommate doing out on our fire escape at almost one in the
morning? Like, she has a job.
She works tomorrow too. I don't know what's going on
here. After seeing this person, a
glimpse of this person, I decide to get up and just go check on
her to make sure everything was OK.
My roommate's room had the door that went out into the fire
escape. It was like French doors.
They weren't really interior doors, but she had like an
exterior door just right in her bedroom essentially.
So I remember getting up and I had a deadbolt on my bedroom
door. Actually at the time it wasn't a
very good one. So I undid that and I opened my
bedroom door and I turned right to go down the hallway towards
her room because we were kind of at different ends of the
apartment. As I turned down the hall, I am
suddenly aware that my roommate is running down the hallway
towards me and she's kind of pulling on clothes haphazardly.
I'm like very confused because like 2 seconds ago she was out
on the fire escape. Now she's standing right in
front of me, like I have no idea what's happening here.
As she runs up to me, she just says someone's trying to get in
my room and I just remember feeling like frozen with fear.
I'm panicking. Let her into my room, close the
door. I close the deadbolt, press my
back against the door. I get my phone in my hand.
I call 911911. What is the location of your
emergency? I'm giving a description of
what's happening, my address and stuff to this dispatcher as I
was describing what was happening, what we were hearing,
what have you. We just start hearing glass
shattering and and like the sound, like thudding, like
someone was beating something. After I heard the glass
shattering and the pounding, we heard like really heavy
footsteps. Nice in the dispatcher.
He's in our apartment. He's in our apartment.
Like I said, I was pressed up against my bedroom door, keeping
it closed, so I was panicking. We could hear just the
footsteps, and I could, I swear, I could feel like air coming
underneath the bedroom door. And I was just like, convinced
that he was like, in the hallway, like listening out the
door, like I was crying. I was panicking.
I couldn't. It was at that point that I I
had to give the phone to my my roommate, 'cause I was just
beyond consolation at that point.
We heard these footsteps, but they eventually got quieter.
We were like, OK that's interesting.
And and my roommate actually then at that point climbed onto
my bed, which was near this other window and she looked out
into our backyard and she saw a guy run across her yard and he
jumped the fence. She told the dispatcher that she
said, OK, he's he's run through the backyard.
And it was then that the dispatcher told us, OK, yeah,
the police are there, it's safe, you can go downstairs.
I think we took a minute because we were both just so rattled.
Still, we we stayed in my bedroom for another minute or
two and then eventually worked up the nerve to open the
deadlock and and to just run downstairs.
We open our our main apartment door and the first thing we
notice is there's just mailboxes everywhere.
There was only probably like 6 units in that building, so
there's usually like 6 mailboxes out on a shelf that were just,
like loose. They weren't attached to
anything and they were just everywhere, just strewn about,
letters everywhere. We walked outside and there was
more mailboxes out on the street and one of our neighbors, our
downstairs neighbor, actually said that she had heard this
commotion and looked out the window and this guy had just
thrown a mailbox at her window. So he was just looking to cause
damage, I guess. I don't know what his deal was.
Everybody that lived in that building was outside talking to
the police. Our downstairs neighbor, he was
there with a broken off chair leg swung over his shoulder and
he said that I guess he kind of confirmed for us that the glass
we had heard shattering was actually his back door and
luckily his had the, I don't know what they call it like the
anti break glass where it has kind of the wires in it, but he
wasn't actually able to breakthrough it.
It just like shattered but stayed intact, which is good
because our glass door upstairs did not have that.
He actually tried to get into four other buildings, so he was
really on a rampage that night. But he tried to get into four
different apartment buildings or townhouses in that same area.
So ours was not the 1st 911 call that was received about this
guy. Particularly after we gave our
statement to the police. My roommate gave a description
of what he looked like. We were still so scared, like it
was probably like 2 in the morning at this point.
We asked one of the police officers if they would come
upstairs and just check her French doors in her room, 'cause
we knew that our downstairs neighbor's door was broken, but
we didn't know if ours were was or not at that point.
He came upstairs with us. We go into her broom and my
roommate, she she demonstrates what had happened and like what
he had done was like, shook her doors really aggressively.
I don't know what the purpose or goal of that was, but he he
shook her doors really aggressively.
And so she demonstrated that she grabbed the doorknobs and she
shook them. And as we're staying there and
she's doing this, one of the doors just opens like nothing.
I remember her just standing there and being like, well, that
was close. Like, I don't know what would
have happened if he had been able to get in because like, for
all I know, I don't know what he broke our downstairs neighbor's
door with, but it appeared to be his fists because he didn't have
a weapon when he was running through our backyard or
anything. So I don't know if he was on
drugs or what was wrong, but he was really dead set on causing
damage and I don't know what would have happened if he had
actually made contact with the person, which is like kind of
scary to think about. The other thing is, like, if I
had left my fire escape window open.
Old house, they have big windows and you could certainly climb
through this window, which is the purpose because if there was
a fire, you need to be able to climb out of the window onto the
fire escape. Sometimes I think about like,
what would have happened if I had just left it open and like,
gone to sleep. Oh, it's so.
It's just like, really gross and creepy to think about.
I do think he was apprehended. I think I saw it in the news the
following day or a couple days later.
But I don't think he actually faced any jail time for it,
because all he all he did, I guess in quotes, is property
damage. He didn't actually serve any
time for it. He might have had to pay a fine
or something like that, I'm not sure.
But for all I know, like I might have walked by him on the street
and wouldn't even know. And I think that's also really
creepy. Just like not knowing.
Don't know what this guy's name is, don't know what he looks
like. He didn't serve any time.
He's just out and about in the world.
And I know so many people who don't lock their doors and don't
lock their bedroom windows even though no one got hurt in the
end and it turned out OK. Just like use this as a
cautionary tale to always lock your door to your apartment,
always lock your windows because you just don't know who is out
there and what their intentions are.
And so many of these stories, like I'm a pretty avid true
crime was scenario. And like so many stories start
with people just being easily to get into someone's house or
apartment or what have you. And it's just like always lock
your door, because you just never know.
The regional police released a statement the day of the
incident saying that they responded to a report of a man
trying to break into numerous apartments.
Upon arrival, officers became involved in a foot pursuit with
the suspect. The 24 year old male was
arrested and would face two property damage charges.
Although Liz's apartment wasn't directly entered, knowing that
their home could have so easily been invaded is unsettling.
Their building's fire escape gave the culprit easier access
to the residents windows. A structure that was meant to
save lives in this instance made them more vulnerable.
And Liz isn't the only person whose fire escape has given an
intruder easy access. Looking for a bold burglar who
is scaling fire escapes to break into apartments in Queens.
Police say this is the man they're looking for in
connection with a string of apartment burglaries in Rego
Park, Queens. Andres Tedesco says he knows the
suspect broke into his apartment on Saunders Ave. because the
grocery bag and loot the man is carrying in this surveillance
video belongs to him. He took two computers, some of
my girlfriend's cameras and unreplaceable jewelry.
Tedesco wasn't home on the afternoon of February 8th when
police say the burglar scaled this fire escape up to the third
floor, forcing open Tedesco's bathroom window.
When I opened the door and I saw like everything was ransacked.
It was awful. Chris Wu says he knows the
feeling. He's among three tenants in
Tedesco's apartment building allegedly burglarized by this
same man. Police say on New Year's Eve
afternoon, the burglar climbed this fire escape, broken through
Wu's kitchen window and took off with his wife's jewelry.
We turn around, look at her dresser, and her entire dresser
was just rummaged through. My wife just panicked.
She just started freaking out and I was like, Oh my gosh, and
then we realized somebody had been in the house.
Police believe this same suspect is responsible for at least five
break insurance here in the Rego Park area, and he's pretty
brazen, breaking into most of the apartments during daylight
hours. It was definitely very
violating, you know, definitely. We still live with a heightened
sense of awareness. And a heightened security
system. The Woos now have new window
locks and alarms to make sure they're not victimized again.
Fire escapes clearly serve an important purpose, giving
residents a way out in the event of a deadly fire.
But given the access they grant to criminals, a deterrent could
help. Window and door alarms are an
affordable solution, giving you a heads up to a home invasion.
Because fire escape or not, if someone really wants to get into
your home, there's usually a way.
Thanks again for listening to Unnerved.
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Until next time, take care.