The Home Invasion

On Wednesday, October 21, I didn't feel well.

We can say I overdid it, as I often do. I was up early to do leg day. I donated plasma. I proceeded to eat oddly and not enough throughout the workday. 

So when I picked Matthew up from work and took him to get his car (to take to a mechanic), I told him I didn't want to cook anything or eat at home. We've actually been eating at home quite a bit to save money and set good habits. 

We debated about where to eat, and as we pulled out of the mechanic's parking lot, I was thinking, "Maybe we should just go home." It was a pressing feeling. 

Unfortunately, I ignored that thought, and we drove to Winger's in Murray. We had just gotten our food when we got a text from our roommate at 6:39 asking, "Are you guys home?"

She sometimes asks if we are home in case she needs to feed Max, or is letting us know if she's having a friend over. I told her we weren't home, but asked if everything was OK.

She called my phone at 6:40pm and talked really quietly, telling us that she thinks someone is in the house. 

Matthew immediately stood up, asked for my keys, and told me to call the police. So I did. 

The police asked all the standard questions--address, repeat the address, name, phone number, name of my roommate, etc. 

I was able to text Matthew and our roommate while I was on the phone with the dispatcher. He said he would keep me on the phone for a while and to let him know if I had more details. 

At 6:43, my roommate said, "I don't think they know I'm home. I was in my room and the door opened. I thought it was you guys but Dexter started barking and growling. Someone yelled at him to shut up so I quietly got up and locked my door."

At 6:45 she said, "I can't hear them anymore."

I asked if she could see them, and she said no. These were questions from the dispatcher. 

She said she was in her room with the door shut just scrolling on her phone, so she didn't get a look.

Matthew asked me to let the police know about Dexter so he wouldn't get shot. 

Also at 6:45, our roommate said she was still in her closet in her room. She told us stopped hearing him right after she called us, and that Dexter stopped growling.

I had to get an update on where Matthew was, so I could direct him not to go into the house.

The roommate texted again at 6:50 saying that the dog was barking and growling, and "I can hear them in the hall I think." 

At 6:52, Matthew texted that the police are coming in.

And that was it. 

Matthew called me at 7:01 and told me the police had cleared the house. I ordered an Uber so I could get home without making Matthew come back to get me. In the meantime I paid for the food and packed it up into to-go boxes. 

I told my Uber driver (Jeannie) about what was happening. She was an older lady and was very sympathetic and wished me well. 

When I got home, I hugged my roommate and asked if she was OK. Then I started frantically looking for things they might have taken. Matthew said his nightstand drawers were open, and the balcony storage door was open, but that nothing was taken that he could see. 

We had a considerable amount of cash in an envelope on my dresser that was not taken!

The police conjectured that it might have been someone putting political door hangers on doors and maybe noticed that our door wasn't closed and came in. They believe that whoever was in our place wasn't in there for very long, and that our roommate may have heard voices or noises from upstairs rather than in the house. I don't think that's true. I think while she didn't hear them, they were maybe on our balcony, especially because she said she heard Dexter growling in that direction. 

I guess there is someone making the rounds, getting into houses but taking nothing. My roommate saw this post on Facebook, so I shared it to my community group and my personal page. 

Obviously I had a weird evening that first night. I kept freezing in my spot and zoning out. I took off the codes from the keypad and made a new one. We called my dad and told him what happened. I dreamed about it and sleep talked. 

The next day I had moments where I felt paralyzed, like I didn't know what to do or if I should go to work. Like I felt like I couldn't function. But I went to work and mostly was OK. I spent a large part of the morning evaluating new smart lock systems and indoor cameras. I landed on a Wyze smart lock and indoor camera, plus the keypad for the lock in case we want to assign temporary codes. The lock keeps track of when the door was locked and unlocked, and which codes were used.

What makes matters worse is that I have a Blink camera that only gives me a live feed. It never records any video. I tried to work it out with them two years ago, but they said it's because the signal or area was too congested. (insert annoyed emoji here) 

The salt in the wound is that I got our new doorbell camera last week, but we hadn't installed it yet. CURSES!

Our roommate obviously is having a hard time. She hasn't stayed at home the last two nights. 

The blessing is that we had her move to the only room in the house with a lock on it! And nothing was taken. It's just insane to me. I feel like it's even more creepy and invasive that someone was just in the house looking through our things but taking nothing. How weird! 

Anyway, our roommate was looking for a new place anyway to move out by the end of the month. She found a place, so she'll start moving stuff this weekend. And Matthew will get that doorbell camera installed either tonight or tomorrow. 

Hopefully we don't get any more creepy creepersons walking into our house. I don't like the feeling of my space being violated.