A few years ago, my roommate and I lived on the third floor on the backside of an apartment building. She was in the process of moving out, so it was mostly just my dog, George Washington, and myself. I knew just about every neighbor in my building and from what I knew, they were all super chill. In order to get to the door to enter our apartment, you would have to pass by my bedroom window. I had never had any issues, until one day, at about 2:00 am on a Sunday. I heard footsteps on the walkway outside my window and saw a shadow pass by. I usually am a groggy person when I first wake up, but ever since it had been just me. I was more aware of my surroundings, so it jolted me awake. I had a night stick under my bed, so I grab it and debated about what to do for the next 30 seconds. I opened up my bedroom door quietly (right in front of our main entrance) and started to notice the handle jiggle ever so slightly. Clearly, at this point I knew I could either a. Shit my pants B. Get attacked or C. Scare the person off. Choice A seemed the most likely for my personality type, but choice C is what realistically I must pick! I turned on the outside lights at once, kicked the outside door as loud as I could, and screamed a string of words so offending I would not repeat any of them here.. I heard footsteps turn and quickly run the other way. I called my stepdad, who thankfully lived close by. He came by to check on me. I said I would be fine and off he went. The next morning, I got up and got ready for church, not really thinking of the night before. I returned home shortly after and was texting on my phone as I reached to get my keys and put them into the lock on my front door. I couldn’t find the keyhole though, so I looked up and noticed that my entire lock had been bashed in. It hadn’t really set in what had happened yet, so I opened the door and looked in. A lot of my stuff were gone...televisions, computers, etc. Luckily, they left my dog there and unharmed. The irony is that I got him to be my guard dog... My brain caught up to my surroundings so I grabbed George and ran outside to call the police. Police came, guns drawn screaming for anyone who is in there to show themselves, as they cleared my apartment. It felt surreal to talk with forensics in your own residence. They never found out who did it. I still am very unsettled internally about that night and day, particularly about that night. I replay it and often wonder what would’ve happen had I not woken up or if the person hadn’t been so easily turned away. It also is very unsettling to know that they were watching me, waiting for me to leave for church, so that they could break in. Ever since that day, I keep my head up and pay extremely close attention to my surroundings, particularly when I get home. This encounter happened when I was about 10 years old. It was in the middle of summer and my sister and I were home alone. Both our mom, and grandmother were busy so they could not stay home with us. We were used to being home alone during the summer. So it was not a big deal. During this day I had gotten up and started to play ‘the sims 2’ in our kitchen. My sister was watching TV in our den. A few hours into gaming I thought I heard the doorbell ring. At first I thought it was my game but my sound was off. I asked my sister if she heard the doorbell, to which she replied she hadn't. I brushed it off and went back to playing my game. About 10 minutes later I see a reflection on my computer of a man in a suit. His hands cupped around his eyes looking through the glass doors behind me. I turn around to be face to face with this strange man I had never seen before. I had no idea how long he had been watching me. He gives me the biggest, creepiest smile I have ever seen, and waves at me like he knew me from somewhere. I screamed, calling my sister who had not noticed the man yet. Scared and partially frozen in fear, my sister grabs the house phone, quickly calling our grandmother. This guy was wearing a full on black suit that did not fit him. If not strange enough that this guy was wearing a full suit while its 99 degrees out there, he was also carrying a weird looking briefcase. All the salespeople I had seen only ever had a clip board or maybe a couple flyers, but this man had something else... The guy proceeds to walked around our house to the backdoor. During his little trip he must have seen there wasn't a car in the driveway indicating no one was home. As I was getting up to hide, the man reached down, grabbed the door knob and started to jiggle it forcefully. Thankfully the door was locked. He looks at me smiling. Gestured at me to come unlock the door for him. All the noise he had been making had set off our 75 pound dog. No way she was gonna let the guy get to us if he did get in. My sister tells me our grandmother is on her way, and she wanted us to hide in the back of the house in her room until she could get home. My sister hands me the phone, then runs into the kitchen to grab the biggest knife we have. I can hear her yelling at the guy that we called the cops. She comes back into the room with me and we shut the door. She tells me that after she lied to the guy about calling the cops, he started laughing uncontrollably, extremely loud. A little while later we hear the door open and my grandmother calling us. She tells us she did not see a man anywhere in sight. She had walked around the whole house before unlocking the door. She also thought it was weird if he was a salesperson he would have left a note saying “sorry we missed you”. She ended up taking the rest of the day off to stay with us. It's been 11 years since this encounter and I still don't want to know what his intentions were, or what was in his mysterious briefcase.