The Night of Terror

Boy oh boy did I have a night from Hell last night! It isn't often I have such heavy things to blog about, but today is a extreme exception. Let me begin this story by saying I live on the ground floor of an apartment building which is in a generally good area of town. I mean I can't really complain based on some places in the city I have seen. Let me also start by saying that Jon ALWAYS spends the night at my house on Sunday nights (at least for the previous 8 months), but this particular Sunday night he was really sick, so he stayed at his house and I stayed at mine. I was awoken abruptly last night by a sound near my bedroom window....a sound which if you have cats, you are very familiar with. I also began hearing my vertical blinds shuffle and sway, also a sight that is not uncommon with cats. However, it was the actions that followed that let me know, this had nothing to do with my cats. I have a portable air conditioner which sits on my floor, but requires about a 3-4 inch air vent strip which you close and lock into your window and which goes from the bottom of the window to the top (I have a window that opens and closes vertically). I flipped over in bed to look at my window and was prepared to yell at a cat when I saw the top half of the air conditioner vent strip fall through my blinds. I shot out of bed thinking it was a bad dream. As I tip-toed toward the window, I suddenly saw a face through the slits in my blinds. I suddenly felt the life drain from my body and before I had a chance to react, a man's hand shot through my blinds towards my face. I am convinced this was completely coincidental and that he was not reaching for my face, but trying to find something to grab onto in my apartment to help force his way through or further open the slot in my window with the force of his body. My first instinct was to punch his hand and arm as hard as I could, so hard in fact it slammed against the wall of my window (I am glad in a time of panic my first instinct wasn't to run away screaming like a schoolgirl). He immediately pulled his arm back through the window and took off running. He was wearing black pants, a black a shirt, and a black ski cap. I am sorry, but an outfit like that means you are up to NO good in this world!! I looked at the clock and it was 12:35 am. I called 9-1-1 and the cops came relatively quickly. However, that was the only quick thing that would follow that night. We had to wait for a finger print technician to come and dust for finger prints. This process of waiting for the technician and the actual process of dusting for prints meant it was nearly 3:00 am before they left. I was exhausted, yet wound at the same time. I just laid in bed wondering what would have happened if he had gotten in. Was he just a burglar or was he a murderer or maybe a rapist. I felt so mad that another human being could violate you in such a way and such a blatant disrespect for the law. I mean you hear about these things every day in the news, but when it happens to you, it just feels different. And not in a "oh, pooooor Keith" type of way, but in a "I am mad as hell and think I could kill this guy if he ever tries to return" type of way. I will keep you updated if they find this dude based on the fingerprints, but man oh man am I glad to be moving to the burbs with Jon and getting out of this apartment.

Like an episode of CSI, they dusted my ledge for fingerprints. You can still see the black residue.

This is the air conditioner vent strip that goes vertically in my window. I had my window shut tight and bolted up against this. You can see the finger print dust. This is the side that would have been facing the guy who pushed it in my window to try and get inside.

You can see that the strip's purpose is to let the moisture from the portable air conditioner unit be blown out via that giant tube!! They dusted the whole thing for prints.

Just a quick visualization to show how damn close my bed is to the window. Try waking up to some dude trying to bust in. You can just see the silver air conditioner unit itself peeking up in the corner of the picture....this is what the hose and vent strip attach to.

Just to show how close my apartment is to the ground.

And another....

That residue on the windows is the dusting from the technician. You can't see it very well in the daylight, but I can guarantee you I won't be trying to open my blinds tonight to take pictures, so this will have to do.

And again, if you can even see the residue....