u/susanbob

Months ago I sat down to watch the “Perfect Neighbor” documentary on Netflix when it first came out. About 2 minutes after I turned it on I hear keys outside my door, I sat up and looked at my door thinking someone just walked to the wrong door, kind of odd cause I’m at the very end of the hallway but still. I also am a single woman, and live on the ground floor.

As I’m watching the door, I hear them put the keys in the deadbolt, and then watch as the deadbolt flips to the unlock position. I instantly stood up and was panicking. Thankfully, I have those door jam bars that go under the door handle, I always put them up right when I get inside and lock my apartment. As I stand up I see my door open a crack, but stop from the door jam bar. I know for a fact the door opened because I had the lights off and the light from the hallway came in.

I’m standing frozen, heart pounding, as I’m watching this. After about three seconds the door closes, and the deadbolt flips back to the lock position. After a few seconds I slowly walked up to the door. I went to check that the deadbolt was really in the lock position and it was. That means someone has/had keys to my apartment, unlocked it, tried to get in, then re locked the door. I know for a FACT I locked the door when I got home earlier that day.

This happened on a Saturday so the apartment manager wasn’t in, but sent them a message so they would get back to me on Monday. I didn’t know what else to do so I called the non emergency number and reported it. I got a case number and everything. The officer I talked to said if this happens again to call 911.

Monday comes and the apartment manager calls me and after explaining everything they say how all their keys are accounted for and that they didn’t know what or how that could have happened. I got the impression that they didn’t believe me. I asked if I could get my locks changed and they said “yes, for $200”. $200?! Someone basically broke into my apartment and you want to charge me! I said how I didn’t think I should have to pay for it since it’s not my fault. The main manager/owner also “well since you didn’t report it to the police we can’t do anything”, I told her “I did report it, you want the case number?” She changed the subject and told me I could pay $100 instead of $200. I said fine since I didn’t feel safe and wanted them changed ASAP. They changed the locks and nothing like this has happened since but I get nervous now every time I hear someone close to my door.

This situation still makes me mad that the apartment didn’t and doesn’t believe me, and just scared/nervous in general living there now. Sorry if any of this is written poorly or doesn’t make sense, I just needed to vent about it.