True Home

This story happened I grew up in a smallish house. For the majority of my c We didn't even have enough room for a desk. It wasn't cramped, but it wasn't exactly comfortable either. So when my brother went away to college, Immediately moved With I was finally at the age where a bedroom desk was a necessity, so it was nice not having to do homework in the basement or upstairs in my dad's office. That arrangement worked seamlessly for the two years before I myself went off to college, at w After graduating, my brother got a city job in her hometown area, so we ended up moving back into my parents' house. And the first t You guessed it, re-seize our bedroom that I had spent months of expended effort redesigning. I was a little irritated at first, but my parents contextualized it by saying I had basically done the same t I couldn't argue with that, so I just accepted it. By the time I graduated, I had also found a city job, so I opted to move back into my parents' house, just Unfortunately, I didn't have a room anymore, so I'd have to make other arrangements. The only other unused room in the house was our upstairs guest bedroom, so even though it was half the size of my old room, it would have to do the trick. The guest room was right next to my dad's office, w It was also directly above the garage, w The room kind of overhangs the house slightly since it's on the corner, so there were two windows on intersecting walls, one overlooking the driveway, and one overlooking one of the sides of the house. It wasn't ideal, but it was private and quiet most of the time. T My brother was in Baltimore for some work-related conference, and my parents were spending the night at our family'shore house like they did most s I was coming off an absolutely grueling day at work, so I decided not to go out with any of my friends or even leave the house. I just wanted to order some food and call it an early night. It was around 11. 30, and I was lying in bed reading a book, trying to unwind from the day. The house was completely quiet, w That's when I heard the unmistakable sound of the garage door starting to rise, followed by that all too familiar vibrating of the floor that I'd gotten used to over the past few months. It took a few seconds for it to really None of my family members should have been home. My parents had specifically said that they were staying at the shore house until Sunday night, and my brother wasn't supposed to be back until Saturday afternoon. It took several seconds for that realization to fully sink in, but when it did, my heart started racing. Immediately j I could see that the garage door was open, but I couldn'tell if there was a car inside or who might have opened it. Without another thought, I r As I was quietly walking down the stairs, I tried convincing myself that there was a logical explanation for the garage door opening. Maybe my parents had forgotten somet Maybe my brother's plans changed. Hell, maybe the door had glitched and opened on its own. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, right before turning the corner toward the main part of the house, I could hear faint voices. The voices were definitely coming from the other side of the house, where all the bedrooms were. They were too quiet for me to make out what they were saying, but I could tell that there were at least two people talking. That's when I knew for certain that someone had broken into our house. I pulled out my phone and dialed 911, w I left the call live and put the phone back in my pocket The operator told me to stay put and not to announce my presence, but I felt t It was So against the operator's instruction, I decided that's exactly what I was going to do. I crept down the hallway toward the voices, clutc As I got closer to my parents' bedroom, I could hear the sounds of drawers being opened and they were clearly searc I took a deep breath, knowing that what I was about to do was probably stupid, but unable to stop myself. I started yelling as loudly as I could to catch them off guard, then charged into the room with the baseball bat raised above my head. There were two men r I could tell they hadn't expected anyone to be home, let alone someone willing to fight back. That gave me confidence, despite the fact that I was outn I swung the bat at the closer of the two men, connecting with He cursed and hobbled a few steps before falling over. I turned to the other one, but before I could get a clean swing at The two of us He wrestled the bat out of my hands without much effort, and got I was fighting for my life, clawing at He had something in his hand that looked I genuinely thought those might be the final moments of my life. I started accepting that I was going to die in my parents' bedroom, and all I could t But then, in the background, I heard the faint sound of police sirens approac The last t Everyt When I woke up, someone was shaking me gently. I opened my eyes to see a police officer kneeling beside me, asking if I was okay. I was dazed and confused, and it took me several seconds to remember what had happened. I looked around the room, and saw that the door connecting my parents' bedroom to the backyard was wide open. The intruders had clearly knocked me out and fled through the back when they heard the sirens. The officer told me to stay put and not to move too much in case I was concussed or had other injuries. I had a raging headache, but I was conscious and coherent, which seemed Once the paramedics confirmed that I was okay, I refused to go to the hospital despite their recommendations. I gave the officers a detailed account of what happened. They told me they were currently searc After the police finished their investigation and took some photos of the scene, I called my parents and brother to let them know what had happened. My parents yelled at me pretty harshly for being stupid enough to confront those guys, and I deserved it. Had I just done the smart the men were never found, despite the police canvassing the neighborhood and following up on a few leads. My parents installed a comprehensive security system the moment they got back from the shore house, complete with cameras, motion sensors, lights, the whole nine. The days after the break in, somet All the doors to my house were locked that night, and the only way to open the garage door was through a little button in my car that my dad had programmed to be a wireless switch. There was no way anyone would just st Whoever had broken in that night had known me or my family well enough to know where that button was. Up until that moment, I never locked my car when it was in the driveway either, so that'somet Even more concerning was the timing. They somehow knew that my parents would be away for the weekend, that my brother was out of town. I don't live in that house anymore, but my parents were never able to determine who had broken in. It was actually somet I'm not going to go as far as to say that night changed me forever or anything cliche Life before and after you've accepted you're going to die are two very different t I can still remember that feeling of t It just felt so dissociating. Not T I had recently moved back to my hometown to help care for my aging mother, who lives about 20 minutes away from me. I found t My mom has been having some health issues lately. She's been life threatening, but she's had a few minor falls around the house, and she'stubborn about accepting help. I'd been trying to convince her to get one of those medical alert systems, but she insists she doesn't need one and that I'm just being overprotective. It's been a constant source of stress for me, especially knowing that she's alone most of the time. On t It was around 9pm, and I was on the couch watc The caller ID showed a local n The woman on the other end identified herself as a nurse at a local emergency room. She said my mother had been brought in about an hour ago after taking a fall and According to her, my mom was conscious but asking for me, and they wanted to know if I could get to the hospital quickly. I was horrified. T I didn't doubt the legitimacy of the call for one second. The woman on the other end knew my mother's full name, her address, and even mentioned her recent Immediately stopped what I was doing, trying to keep calm and level myself by saying a silent prayer. I didn't even t I just grabbed my keys, pulled the front door shut be The drive to the hospital was a nightmare. I kept running through scenarios in my head, and only a few of them were remotely good. When I got to the ER, I rushed up to the reception desk and told them I was there for my mother. I gave them her name and said I'd received a call about her fall. The nurse looked confused and checked her computer, then told me there was no record of anyone by that name being admitted or treated that evening. Insisted there had to be some mistake, since I had just gotten a call from someone claiming to be a nurse there. The receptionist was sympathetic but firm. They had no record of my mother being brought in, and they suggested I try calling her directly to make sure she was okay. So that's what I did. I stepped outside and called my mom's landline, and she answered. She said she'd been sleeping and wanted to know why I was calling so late. I didn't want to scare her, so I just said I was checking up on her and told her to go back to bed, and that's when the heart-sinking realization T I had deliberately given me false information to get me out of my house. I j When I pulled into my driveway, the front door was still closed just For a moment, I thought maybe I was being paranoid and not The house had been completely ransacked. My TV was gone, along with my laptop and small jewelry collection I kept in my bedroom. As I looked around more carefully, I realized the t Family photos had been removed from their frames, not the frames themselves, just the actual photos. My prescription bottles from the bathroom medicine cabinet had been emptied and taken. It was insane. They had taken t It was sadistic, I'm telling you. There's no reason a there just isn't. I called the police immediately, but I was already feeling defeated at that point. Deep down, I knew the t I told the police everyt I remembered the phone call verbatim, and after hearing it, the police reached the same conclusion I had. Whoever had been on the other end had known t For the life of me, I couldn't even come up with a list of people who wouldn't have that information, or even ways that someone could have gotten that information in the first place. The officers told me to feel free to call back whenever I had somet I was utterly baffled. Just imagine how unsettled you'd feel if some stranger knew enough about you to lure you out of your house. Theft itself was bad enough, but the fact that they targeted family photos and medical information suggested it wasn't just about quick cash. I couldn't shake the feeling that they were planning something longer term, possibly identity theft or some other scheme that required personal doc But over the next few weeks, not Even though my mother, quote, can't remember who she might have talked to about her personal info, I'm pretty confident that she's the source of the leak. She surprisingly has a lot of friends for a woman her age, and knowing her, she probably said too much to the wrong person. I've warned my mother about that very t Either way, I recently got a ring camera, so hopefully that's enough of a deterrent. If anyt I'm a single guy in my early 30s, and I've been living alone in t It's a nice little place in a quiet neighborhood. Not I've gotten into a good routine here, and really feel The incident happened on a Thursday night around half past 11. I was getting ready for bed when I heard aggressive pounding on my front door. Not knocking, but actual pounding, I looked out the window, but couldn't see much because of how poorly the porch light is positioned. Despite not being able to see who it was and the aggressiveness of the knocking, I'm a pretty buff guy, so I wasn't scared or anyt I opened the front door, careful to keep the screen door shut as an added layer of protection. I'm not sure what I was expecting to see, but what I did see was surprising to say the least. There was t He looked to be maybe a few years older than me. He was average height, had disheveled hair, and was wearing clothes that looked But what really caught my attention was how angry and unstable he seemed. His eyes were darting around, and he was breathing heavily He was also pacing around, Or I could even ask what he wanted. He started yelling that t He said I was trespassing, and that he was going to call the police if I didn't get out immediately. I thought he was either on drugs or having some kind of mental health crisis, or maybe a combination of the two. I tried to calm That's when he started rattling off details about the house that made me freeze up. I don't even remember everyt Details that only someone who had actually lived there would know. He knew that the back door sticks and you have to lift it slightly w There was some other stuff too, but I really can't remember it all. I don't I was just standing there in shock. But that was only the beginning. It was about to get much, much weirder. Through the screen door, he pulled out a folder and started showing me doc He had what appeared to be a lease agreement with He had pieces of mail addressed to Everyt But the most unsettling part was when he pulled out They were literal pictures of The photos looked recent and completely legitimate. They weren't obviously photoshopped or staged, and most of them weren't solo. They had other people in them, all of whom I'd never seen before. He showed me one photo that he claimed was from t It was a selfie taken by a woman I didn't recognize. In it, the woman, There was a box of fireworks off to the side, and the detail and context of the picture made it look completely authentic. That's when I genuinely started questioning my own memory and sanity. How could t I started wondering if I somehow blocked out memories of sharing the house with someone, and if I was the one having some kind of psychological breakdown. It was freaky, especially since I knew for a fact that I had been home on the 4th of July, so the pictures made even less sense. The whole situation was so surreal that I told them I was going to call the police to sort everyt Not even in antagonistic way, I just didn't know what else to do. I figured they could check the records and determine what was going on. But the moment I mentioned calling the cops, the guys demeanor changed completely. He suddenly became very calm and said he'd wait outside w Then he just walked away from the door and disappeared into the darkness. I watched from the window, but I couldn't see where he went. When the police arrived about 10 minutes later, I explained the whole bizarre situation. They told me I should try reac I had all the required doc They said whoever had been on my doorstep was probably just going through a mental episode, and as long as they were gone, I should just carry on with my life, then they left. I wasn't just going to sit there and be satisfied with that though. Whether or not that guy had left still left a question of how in the world he had all that evidence. With my landlord's help, I was eventually able to get in contact with the previous tenants. I should mention that my landlord had no idea what had happened either, and said he didn't know anyone matching that guy's description, and had never rented to anyone But They said they'd never lived with anyone matc They were just as confused as I was about how t For the next 2 weeks, I was constantly on edge, but not But of course, that turned out to be mostly wishful t One night, I came home from a night on the town with my friends, to find my house completely ransacked. It wasn't What that the craziest part is that most of my electronics and other valuable items were still there, despite the fact that the rooms they were in were completely trashed. The police found no signs of forced entry, w Given the timing and connection to the strange incident 2 weeks earlier, it seemed obvious that the same person was responsible. The police took t He replaced all the locks in the house immediately and free of charge, and also installed additional security measures. The going theory, and the one I believe, is that some crazy person really does believe he lives in my house, and broke in to look for And okay, sure, that's problematic enough on its own. But that does absolutely nothing to explain how he had all that doc I wish I had the sense to take a closer look at that so-called lease agreement he had shown me, because I might have been able to get But in the moment, I just wasn'the doc All that stuff could have been easily forged or altered, including the alleged pieces of mail. What freaks me out to my core though, are the pictures. I have no explanation for any of that stuff. It's possible they'really old pictures whose dates are doctored. But even if that's the case, it still doesn't explain how my landlord, whose own that house's entire life, didn't recognize One of my friends suggested that I'm up against somet I don't believe in that kind of stuff, but I will say that I've had t I can't even begin to rationalize the whole t I just hope that's the end of it.