I’m a mom of two. Blaire is 6 and Rosie is 3, after Rosie had her third birthday I decided it was finally time to go back to work after taking time off to raise the kids. Time had gone very quickly, although I was finding it hard to get back into the swing of it at work. So, my husband and I agreed to do two opposite days a week in the office, two days at home, and then both in the office on a Friday while Rosie was to attend a local daycare. Everything was going smoothly, we had a good routine! Until one Friday afternoon, my husband Jim and I were working, Blaire was at school and Rosie seemed to be enjoying her Friday daycare session, then I received a phone call…
But first, let me go back a little. We moved to this new neighborhood around 10 months ago, it was big but quiet and the houses were a decent space apart with lots of yard space. This was very different from what we were living in before but I really loved it there. Our house had two floors and a basement. The attic space was technically another floor, but we decided to just use it for storage. A few months after we moved in, we started noticing a few… problems… with the house.
There were strange smells, which would seem to disappear by themselves, things would go missing then turn up in weird places, and food being taken from the fridge… I know what you’re thinking, we have kids, these things happen with kids! But, no. Even having kids, these things were strange. My toothbrush, ceramic plates, and even the cleaning supplies which were safely locked away would disappear almost daily, then return back to another room a few days later. One time I awoke in the middle of the night to what I thought was my husband getting up to use the toilet, although when my eyes adjusted I saw him still laying next to me. This was strange as I was sure someone was in the bathroom with the tap running, but after checking, no one was there and the light and tap were now off. I asked him about this in the morning but he confirmed he hadn’t gotten up at the time I suggested, so I just brushed it off. Strange things like this would happen frequently.
Despite this, as I said, life was going smoothly until this Friday afternoon when our lives started to turn upside down. Daycare was calling… I was at work in a meeting, but of course, my kids are more important so I answered the call, and here’s how it went.
Daycare: Hello! Good afternoon is this Zara?.. Rosie’s mother?
Me: Hi, yes! This is she… is everything alright?
Daycare: Yes, yes, no need to worry Zara, just a quick call to let you know that when you come to collect Rosie today there will be an incident report to fill out…
Me: Oh?… I… Alright? What’s happened? Is she okay, is everyone else-?
Daycare: Sorry to scare you! Rosie is absolutely fine, everything is okay… there was just something Rosie blurted out today… It’s just… Nothing sinister or anything just something she must have heard elsewhere, I won’t repeat anything over the phone but will let you know when you come to collect her! We just had to complete an incident report as it upset some of the older children.
I could hear the panic in her voice, but my Rosie? This wasn’t like her at all… she was so quiet. I picked Rosie up that day a little earlier than normal and the Daycare staff informed me she had mentioned something about a man living in her wardrobe who took her toys. I was gobsmacked! Where did this come from? I tried asking Rosie to explain to me what she was talking about but she’d already forgotten… That evening I informed my husband Jim about what Rosie had said, he was equally confused but seemed more scared… “You think this might have come from an experience?” he questioned. I hadn’t thought about this before… God, maybe we fell victim to a burglary! I felt sick to my stomach. I initially thought this idea of a man in her wardrobe was something Blaire had said, or something she’d seen on TV… but was there a possibility of this coming from an experience?
Days turned into weeks and with intense locking of doors, checking the house, and trying to talk to Rosie about this. We began to move on. 3-year-olds forget things quickly and can say strange things at times… is what we had convinced ourselves. Until one evening around winter break, Jim and I were sitting in the living room watching a movie. It was around 10:30 pm and the kids were both upstairs tucked into bed. It had been a long day so Jim and I cuddled up and both began to drift off to sleep. Suddenly, I was knocked back into reality when footsteps were heard above us. “Did you hear that?” I whispered to Jim. “Hmm?” he mumbled back, “Must be Blaire getting up for a pee”. I waited. No… I thought to myself, it isn’t Blaire’s room above us, it’s our bedroom. “I’m just going to check” I climbed the stairs, tiptoeing to not disturb anyone. But nothing, the kids were in bed, my room was untouched and there was nothing unordinary. I choked it up to being sleep deprived and decided to call it a night.
The following day was a Sunday and since Christmas was only a few weeks away we agreed it was a perfect day to set up the Christmas tree. Jim and I headed up the narrow staircase to the attic and instantly were faced with an awful smell. It smelt like sewage and was sorta musty. I worried a pipe may have burst and that was what I heard last night, but after investigation, it was all fine. We dusted off the Christmas tree and brought it down the stairs one person at each end. I was on the upper end and while I descended down the stairs.. I noticed something in the corner of the attic. “Hold on a moment, darling,” I said dropping my end of the box. “Ah- okay?” Jim struggled and lowered his end. I approached the area, which was in an alcove of the attic with a ceiling height of about 4 feet. I hunched down, there were blankets, clothes, food wrappers, etc. “HOLY-” I covered my mouth. “What’s wrong?!” Jim had managed to prop the tree up against the stairs and was now behind me… “Look” I exclaimed, feeling lost for words. My eyes began to water. “Previous owners?” I questioned. We looked at each other, agreeing. Something did feel off, but it was winter break! Family time was calling, so we cleaned it up and moved on to that instead… if only I had known…
After completing the task of bringing the tree down the stairs, Jim and I went to collect the kids from their rooms to bring them down to help with the tree. Jim went for Blaire and I was to get Rosie.
We assembled in the living room, unpacking our Christmas memorabilia, dusting off the last 12 months. Christmas films were playing, we danced to music and ate chocolate. It was the best family night for a while. As the kids started to wind down and began to get sleepy, Jim set off to retrieve pajamas from the girls’ bedrooms. “Please don’t let the man in my wardrobe tonight get me.” Rosie looked up at me with her big brown eyes. “What? What man?” My heart began to pound. This hadn’t been mentioned for quite some time, I didn’t think we’d hear about this again. “I will protect you sweetheart.” I reassured her. It’s all I could do in this situation. Blaire began to get upset hearing about this ‘man in the wardrobe’ situation which we had managed to hide from her all this time so I decided to change the subject to settle her.
Jim returned, clutching two pairs of purple matching pajamas. We headed up stairs after a snack and I updated Jim on Rosie mentioning the thing again, “Must of been a dream she had” he stated, like he was reassuring himself. After tucking the girls into bed, I got half way down the stairs when I heard a door opening upstairs. The girls had their own rooms, both in single beds so they could easily leave whenever they needed something, which they did a lot! I rolled my eyes, knowing this was only the start of the bedtime pandemonium. “Blaire, Rosie, come on girls it’s bedtime!” I called up waiting for the reply of the child who left their room. No reply.
I went to Blaire’s room first. But she was out cold, snoring away. I waited to see if she was faking. While standing in the doorway, something caught my eye, the attic door was left open. This was strange as it’s a child proofed door and I’m sure I had closed it after taking down the decorations. I went over to close it, but as I did there was a slight noise coming from Rosie’s bedroom… Laughing? Chatting? Baby talk? There’s the door opener culprit! Although as I pushed the door open it suddenly stopped. “Rosie? I’m coming in.” but it was empty. Confused, I stepped inside, checking under the bed, behind the curtains but no sign of her. I went over to check the wardrobe. “Come on, come out Rosie! Are you in there?” I called out, getting annoyed now. “Yes I’m in here, mama!”
That wasn’t Rosie. My blood ran cold as my expectation of hearing my daughter’s voice was replaced by something unexpected. A man’s voice, slightly high pitch.
Unsure what to do I shouted for Jim, “Hey babe, can you come here… please?” I felt my words begin to get muffled by tears. “Rosie’s just come down here Zara! She said she walked past you while you were in Blaire’s room? What’s going on?” he replied, “I’m just coming up!” Speechless, relief flooded over me, knowing Rosie was safe. Relief was quickly replaced by a rush of adrenaline when I swung the wardrobe door open to reveal a dirty old man standing amongst my daughter’s sparkly pink dresses.
I screamed bloody murder.
Before I knew it, Jim was grabbing my arm from behind and pulling me out of the room. Thankfully he did this in time as the man was lunging at me, holding one of our kitchen knives. The knife caught my forearm leaving a gash, but I didn’t feel the pain. We ran into Blaire’s room, scooping her out of bed. I heard the man climbing out of the wardrobe, knocking metal hangers out as he did. Jim and I loaded the kids in the car, the safest thing to do was just to leave. We sped off, driving for what felt like hours before returning to meet the police outside our house. An Ambulance came to check me out but all I needed was a new stitches, it could’ve been a lot worse!
Cops found the man hunched in our basement laundry room, still clutching the bloody knife he used on me. They dragged him out in handcuffs, allowing me to get a better look. He was wearing my husband’s clothes, his hair was matted and he was as thin as a stick. He looked ill and vacant like he wasn’t all there, or possibly on something. That day, while Jim and I were moving the Christmas tree, he managed to escape the attic while we were downstairs. Not being heard due to the loud music. Rosie had left her bed that night due to being thirsty, and thank goodness she did as I can only imagine what would’ve happened.
Our missing items were found in his possession. And for 6 months he had been living above us, hiding amongst boxes, eating our food, using our facilities while we were away, stealing our things, and worst of all, watching us sleep. I feel we are lucky in a way as no one was seriously injured that night, I recovered well and Jim and I were really shaken up, to say the least. We moved out of that house 3 months later due to the horrific memories. We are safe now and have installed a security system and camera in our new house. If only I had listened to Rosie weeks ago…