Freaked Out
Living out in the country, in a friendly, predominantly LDS neighborhood, I never thought I'd be worried about crime. Unfortunately, we've had more contact with the police in the last 3 years here in Utah than we did the entire 11 years we lived in the suburbs of Washington, DC. In fact, we had police at our home Sunday night.
It was nearly 9:30 pm and Angela was reading in her room with her door open, which is directly across from our basement entry door. She heard someone trying to open the door. Several seconds later, she heard someone trying to open one of the windows in one of the spare bedrooms. I have a lot of knick-knacks on the window sill of that window, and when the potential intruder knocked some of them about, he was frightened off. Angela found Chris and I and told us she thought someone was trying to get in. Chris stormed into the spare room and we found the window with the latch in the locked position, but not secured; meaning someone had wiggled the window off the latch and was able to push the window open. He had knocked a few of the knick-knacks over in the process.
I called our neighbors to warn them of a prowler in the neighborhood and they set about using the Ward call chain to warn the rest of the neighborhood. I then called the police and they were at our door within just a few minutes. We explained the incident and showed them the "scene". They were very open with us about what they believe is going on. Our neighborhood has had problems with an apparent "peeping Tom" for the last several years. The police believe he was the culprit of our break-in and he was possibly targeting Angela. He has a preference for tall, blond, teenaged girls. Yipes! The police were here gathering evidence for over an hour. They were pretty stoked to actually find evidence (which I will not describe just now so as not to jeopardize our case).
Obviously, we are all a little freaked out! Chris has gone about the house installing extra security measures and we are researching a security system. Outside lights will be left on. Our kids will not be allowed to roam the neighborhood or even play outside without supervision. Angela has moved to a more secure room in the house. Our peace of mind has been violated and will not be restored until this guy has finally been arrested.
What terrifies me most is if our perpetrator was indeed the neighborhood "peeping Tom", his behavior has escalated from creepy peeping to breaking and entering and who knows what his intention in doing so was! For goodness sake, we were all home. We were all still up and about. What was he planning to do?
Prayers for a quick and effective resolution would be greatly appreciated! If anything new occurs, I will be sure to update y'all here.
It was nearly 9:30 pm and Angela was reading in her room with her door open, which is directly across from our basement entry door. She heard someone trying to open the door. Several seconds later, she heard someone trying to open one of the windows in one of the spare bedrooms. I have a lot of knick-knacks on the window sill of that window, and when the potential intruder knocked some of them about, he was frightened off. Angela found Chris and I and told us she thought someone was trying to get in. Chris stormed into the spare room and we found the window with the latch in the locked position, but not secured; meaning someone had wiggled the window off the latch and was able to push the window open. He had knocked a few of the knick-knacks over in the process.
I called our neighbors to warn them of a prowler in the neighborhood and they set about using the Ward call chain to warn the rest of the neighborhood. I then called the police and they were at our door within just a few minutes. We explained the incident and showed them the "scene". They were very open with us about what they believe is going on. Our neighborhood has had problems with an apparent "peeping Tom" for the last several years. The police believe he was the culprit of our break-in and he was possibly targeting Angela. He has a preference for tall, blond, teenaged girls. Yipes! The police were here gathering evidence for over an hour. They were pretty stoked to actually find evidence (which I will not describe just now so as not to jeopardize our case).
Obviously, we are all a little freaked out! Chris has gone about the house installing extra security measures and we are researching a security system. Outside lights will be left on. Our kids will not be allowed to roam the neighborhood or even play outside without supervision. Angela has moved to a more secure room in the house. Our peace of mind has been violated and will not be restored until this guy has finally been arrested.
What terrifies me most is if our perpetrator was indeed the neighborhood "peeping Tom", his behavior has escalated from creepy peeping to breaking and entering and who knows what his intention in doing so was! For goodness sake, we were all home. We were all still up and about. What was he planning to do?
Prayers for a quick and effective resolution would be greatly appreciated! If anything new occurs, I will be sure to update y'all here.
Comments
Prayers for you all. Stay safe! (And, if possible, an adult dog, even temprarily, might not be a bad idea.)