Post by Joanna on Feb 18, 2019 1:40:55 GMT -5
'Ghost' Turns out to Be Flesh and Blood Intruder
Maddie, a junior at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, thought her apartment was haunted. There were noises coming from her closet, articles of clothing disappeared and she saw strange hand prints on her bathroom walls.
Finally, she’d had enough and on February 2, after again hearing rattling sounds emanating from the closet, she went to the closet door and called out “Who’s in there?” One can imagine how shocked she was when a male voice replied, “Oh, my name’s Drew.”
She attempted to make an emergency call on her smartwatch while holding the door closed, but the call didn’t go through. Then the man began pushing on the door, while at the same time promising he wouldn’t hurt her. “I open the door and he’s in there, wearing all of my clothes. My socks. My shoes. And he has a book bag full of my clothes,” she said.
The intruder begged Maddie not to call police, so she called her boyfriend instead and chatted with the man, who was acting strangely, to keep him occupied. “He tries on my hat. He goes in the bathroom and looks in the mirror and then is like ‘You’re really pretty, can I give you a hug?’ But he never touched me,” she continued. She admitted feeling somewhat bad for the man, who left as soon as her boyfriend arrived.
Ronald Glenn, spokesman for the Greensboro County Police Department, said police arrested 30-year-old Andrew Clyde Swofford (above) shortly thereafter at a nearby service station. He was charged with misdemeanor breaking and entering and held on a $26,000 bond. According to Glenn, he had a criminal history that included larceny and failure to appear in court on felony charges.
“I’ve heard of other incidences of people walking into the wrong apartments ... but as far as somebody being in somebody’s closet, I haven’t heard that before – that’s pretty unique,” Glenn admitted. He added there was no sign of forced entry at Maddie’s residence.
Unfortunately, Swofford wasn’t the first strange man Maddie discovered in her apartment: On December 19, she found two men in her living room. Because she no longer felt safe in her apartment – who would? – she notified the leasing office she would vacating the premises. An employee of Burkley Communities, the property management company, told WGHP News the locks had been changed at the time of the December incident, but a police report wasn’t filed, which was “standard protocol.”
“I can’t stay here. My closet, it stinks,” Maddie insisted. “Every time I go in [my room], there’s a bad vibe. I’m just ready to leave.”
She subsequently told a WFMY reporter she had signed a lease on a new apartment.
Sources: Michael Brice-Saddler, The Washington Post, February 5, 2019; WGHP News; and WFMY News.
