This happened around a year ago or so. I was a freshman in college and frequently visited a cafe near my apartment to get school work done. I enjoyed going there because of the good coffee, plus there wasn’t anything distracting me from getting my work done on my computer.
One day, I was getting ready for work as I had to cover a coworker’s shift pretty suddenly. It turned out to be a false alarm however, as they said they didn’t need me to cover for them at the last minute. I was a little bit annoyed as I had already gotten ready and had even canceled plans with a friend for today, but I decided I may as well make the most of my time. So I went to the usual cafe I went to, which opened at 7 am and it was around 7:30 at that time. At this time in the morning, I figured it would be pretty dead there, so I could get lots of work done since most people would be at work.
I headed into the cafe, and sat down at the spot I usually took. A small table towards the back, with a nice view outside at the park nearby. It was my favorite spot and I took it almost every time I was there. It was just a super relaxed, calm setting which was perfect for getting some work done.
After about 30 minutes of sitting there, almost nobody else had entered the building and it was as quiet as ever. I decided to take this opportunity to quickly use the restroom since it was near my seat. Regrettably, I left my laptop sitting there open for anybody to see or take, but since there wasn’t anybody else there I figured a quick bathroom break wouldn’t hurt. I got up and headed to the restroom, then quickly got out of there once I was finished. I hurried back to my seat to get back to work, only to realize my laptop was no longer on the table. However, my backpack was still sitting beside my seat like before, so I thought maybe I had put it away and forgot.
I looked through my backpack over and over but it wasn’t in there. Somebody had stolen my laptop when I had gotten up to use the restroom. There hadn’t been anybody else around, so I went up front to ask the employee there if they had seen anybody. It was some new guy I’d never seen before, who’s name tag said Troy I believe. He looked to be around my age, and was leaning forward on the desk on his phone when I walked up to him. He didn’t seem overly friendly either as he didn’t even look up whenever I asked him if anybody else had come into the cafe in the last 5 minutes. He just shrugged and continued doing whatever he was doing on his phone.
I looked back towards where my seat was and noticed that it was kind of hard to see my seat from the front desk. It was sort of a blind spot so I understood if he hadn’t seen anybody over there. I then asked him if there were any cameras around that could help find out who took my laptop but he seemed utterly disinterested. He finally looked up at me and I could tell how annoyed he was getting, he simply shook his head and said that the only cameras that worked were outside. He said the ones inside were fake and were used to intimidate rather than record anything. That’s ridiculous, I thought to myself.
Now, pretty annoyed myself, I thanked him and left the building. I thought that whoever had stolen my laptop couldn’t have gotten far, maybe I would see somebody carrying it away from the building. Unfortunately I didn’t but that didn’t stop me from trying. Eventually I gave up and decided to just head home. On my way home I went to the local police station and filed a report about the incident which took a lot longer than I thought it would. All this time had been wasted and they told me they would look into it, whatever that meant.
I drove home and started thinking about what I was going to do. All my school work was on that computer, as well as some personal info about me too. Whoever stole it could probably track down my address and maybe even access my bank account. As I was lost in thought worrying about what might happen, there was a loud knock on my door. I almost jumped from shock, and walked over slowly to look out the peephole. Nobody was there, which freaked me out a little, but I thought maybe it was some prank like kids playing ding dong ditch.
That’s when I remembered that I no longer lived in an actual house with my parents, this was an apartment complex. You see, back when I lived with my parents before college, occasionally some of the local teenagers would run around ringing doorbells or knocking on doors before running away. Sometimes a house or two would have eggs thrown at it. But now that I had moved out, this shouldn’t have been the case anymore. The doors were inside, not out on the street, so some random stranger couldn’t have just been playing a prank like that.
After some consideration, I slowly opened the door just a bit to peek outside. The hallway was empty left and right with dozens of closed doors on either side. I then noticed something on the door. There was a small sticky note on the front of my door that said “I know everything about you. I can’t wait to meet you in person next” with a smiley face. Shivers went down my spine as I ripped the sticky note off the door and quickly shut it before locking it.
My heart was racing and I didn’t know what to do. I decided to call the non-emergency police number about what had happened. They said they would send a patrol car over to talk with me which they did. After speaking to the officers, they told me they would get in touch with the owner of the apartment and see if they can get the camera footage from today. They also said that they would patrol the area around the apartment after they left, which made me feel safer. I stayed in my apartment the rest of the day and eventually fell asleep that night on my couch due to my exhaustion after being so worried and scared that whole day.
Later in the night, I was awoken to a noise. It sounded like some loud banging noise. Then another one and another one. They were growing louder as I was trying to pinpoint where exactly they were coming from in my disoriented state. Suddenly they stopped, and I realized they were coming from inside my apartment. My heart started racing and I felt like I was going to throw up from how terrified I was.
Now let me paint a clearer picture of my apartment. So when you walk in, there’s a tiny foyer area at the door, which leads into the living room where I had been asleep on the couch. To the right of the living room is the kitchen and to the left of the living room is my bedroom and beside that is the bathroom. The bathroom has two entrances, you can enter it straight from the living room, or you can use the door connected to my bedroom. I slowly got off the couch and crawled across the floor to the kitchen to grab a kitchen knife. The banging sounded like it had come from the bathroom so I made my way over there.
I quietly crawled towards my bedroom door. Even in the darkness, I could barely make out that the door was slightly open. I looked at the bathroom door and saw that it was closed. I decided to enter my bedroom as it was already open a bit, but first I got out my phone. I called 911 and as it was ringing, I shined my phone light on my bedroom door. I’ll never forget what I saw next. Through the small crack in the door, I saw somebody’s eye looking out at me. I jumped back and screamed as loud as I could, then quickly went into the bathroom and locked both doors.
The dispatcher was trying to calm me down and ask what was happening, and I suddenly heard my bedroom door quickly open and slam shut. I heard loud footsteps running through my apartment and moving some things around, then they opened the door and left. I still didn’t feel safe, so I stayed locked in the bathroom until the police arrived after I was finally able to calm down enough to explain what had happened. To my disbelief, when the police got there, they had been called by another person there who had also called them on the same person trying to break into their apartment. It turned out to be some middle aged man with a dirty beard and long unkempt hair. He was still trying to break into the apartment when they got there. They quickly detained the guy and put him in cuffs then placed him in a police car.
Some officers then searched my apartment just in case he had an accomplice who might have been inside still, but turned up nothing. I decided to stay over at a friend’s house that night, in fear of being alone. The next day when I got back to my apartment, I was frozen in fear when I entered my bedroom. My laptop that had been stolen before, was now sitting neatly on my bed as if it had been there all along. I later got a call from the police saying that they went through the footage and were able to identify the man who broke into my apartment as having been the one who placed the note on my door. That sent shivers through my whole body, even if I fully expected that to be the case.
As for my laptop, I’m still not sure how exactly it ended up back in my apartment. Maybe the man had left it there when he broke in that night, but then, wouldn’t the police or I have noticed it? Or maybe, just maybe, somebody came back later that night when I was gone and returned it. Thinking about what could have happened still scares me and I’ve since gotten that laptop completely reset as I don’t know what could have been done to it while it was stolen.