Home alone at 12 years old and the terrifying stranger at the door

I was 12 years old and it was a summer afternoon, when my parents left me home alone to run some errands. They weren’t going to be gone for long… maybe 15 minutes or so. I remember it was a sunny day, warm weather and a gentle breeze blowing from outside. So nice that I had all the windows in the house open and the screen doors were on them to keep the bugs out. <br><br>Growing up in this small town in Ohio, we never had to worry about locking doors or windows because crime was almost unheard of. <br><br>I was busy playing video games in the living room when I heard a knock at the front door. I remember thinking to myself, “That’s strange, I’m not expecting anyone, especially since my parents are out right now.” But I didn’t think much of it and thought maybe it was just a neighbor or perhaps a friend who came over to hang out. <br><br>So I walked over to the front door, which was on the opposite side of the wall from where I was sitting in the living room. I remember looking through the peephole and seeing a man standing there wearing a postal uniform. I saw what looked to be a package in his hand and a smile on his face. <br><br>I was still thinking in my head, “who could he be? Why is he at my door and does he need a signature for the package?” So I opened the door just a tiny bit, leaving the chain lock in place. I looked at him and said, “Hi, can I help you with something?” He looked at me and said, “I have a package here for you. Can you please just sign for it?” Something about his demeanor, his smile and his voice just didn’t sit right with me. <br><br>I remember saying, “I’m not expecting any packages and I’m not old enough to sign for anything.” I paused, looked at him for a second and said, “and aren’t you usually in a blue shirt?” He just looked at me with a smirk on his face and a slight chuckle. I looked down and noticed he didn’t have the usual blue shirt and shorts that the typical mailman wears. I remember seeing more of a beige uniform with a postal logo on it, rather than the usual mailman outfit that I saw every day. <br><br>I looked back at him, closed the door and said, “I’m not going to sign for anything.” He paused for a second, looked at me and said, “Fine, I’ll just go back to my truck and throw the package in the back and we’ll just forget about it.” I said, “ok.” I closed the door, locked the door knob and dead bolted it. For some reason I had a bad feeling about everything. I didn’t know if this was a scam… or if this man was legitimate. But something didn’t seem right.<br><br>I waited for about a minute, looking out the window through the blinds to see where he was going to go. I saw him walking away from the house towards the street, where I saw a USPS truck parked. He walked to the side of the truck and just stood there. I couldn’t see into the truck cab from where I was standing because the sun’s glare was reflecting off the windshield. So it was hard to see if there was anybody else inside. <br><br>I walked away from the window and went into the kitchen, looking out the kitchen window to see if I could see anything in the truck. When I got to the kitchen window, I noticed there was a man standing at the side door of the house, just a few feet from where I was standing at the kitchen window. And he was looking at me. I did a double take, wondering to myself, how did he get there? And who is he? He was standing there with a smile on his face, wearing no shirt and no uniform, simply a pair of shorts and flip-flop sandals. <br><br>I remember freezing for a second thinking, “I’m in trouble, I need to get away from this window and find a place to hide.” So I ran through the kitchen into the dining room. I walked through the dining room down a hallway towards the bedrooms. I went into my parents bedroom, ran into their walk in closet and shut the door. <br><br>I climbed up onto a rack above the hanging clothes where there was a solid metal rod that held a lot of boxes of clothes. I crawled behind the boxes and hid myself behind them, holding perfectly still and completely quiet. I could hear footsteps walking through the house, heavily walking from room to room, looking in the kitchen, the dining room, the living room and bathrooms. <br><br>But the footsteps got louder and louder as they approached the bedroom. I held my breath and remained completely still. I heard the footsteps stop right in front of the walk in closet. The door creaked open and I heard someone saying, “are you in here? can you hear me? I know you’re here. Come on out, you can’t hide forever.” I remained completely still, holding my breath and not making a single sound. <br><br>I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. I could hear the blood rushing in my ears. All I could think about was how I had to be completely silent and not move a single muscle. Whoever this person was, they sounded like they were right in front of me. I could smell their breath, their cologne, and their sweat. It sent shivers down my spine while I was hiding.<br><br>I thought the worst, that this was a home invasion and that my parents were not going to come home. That these people were going to use me as leverage to get inside the house. The footsteps sounded like more than one person. I assumed it was the man at the door and also the man I saw at the side of the house. <br><br>I remained frozen in place, holding my breath, the sweat dripping down my face. I could feel the heat emanating from my body as I was hiding in this closet, praying that they wouldn’t find me. I thought about calling 911, but I didn’t have a phone. <br><br>The man continued to taunt me, saying, “I know you’re in here, I can hear you. Why don’t you come on out and let’s talk about this?” I remained silent. He continued, “are you gonna make me look for you? Because that’s what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna find you and I’m going to make you come out.” He sounded like he was right on the other side of the boxes that I was hiding behind. <br><br>I was thinking to myself, “this is my last day on Earth. Something bad is going to happen to me. I’m not going to make it through this, my parents are not coming home in time.” After what felt like an eternity, I heard the footsteps turn around and walk away. <br><br>I heard the sound of the screen door in the living room unlatching and the door opening. Then the sound of the screen door closing. I thought to myself, “he’s gone”… or so I thought. I remained frozen in place for what felt like another eternity, just listening to the silence. <br><br>Finally I decided to come out and look around the house. I walked slowly out of the closet and into the bedroom. I looked around the room to make sure nobody was hiding. I saw nobody. So I walked out into the hallway and looked around the house, searching every room for an intruder. <br><br>When I got to the living room, I noticed the screen door was open. I walked over to it and closed it and latched it. I stood at the door looking out into the neighborhood to see if I could see anybody. I saw nobody. Everything looked normal. <br><br>I walked over to the phone and called 911. I told them my story and they said they would have someone over right away. I waited anxiously until the police arrived. I explained to them everything that happened and also showed them the closet where I was hiding. <br><br>The police searched the house from top to bottom and found nobody. They looked around the neighborhood but found nothing out of the ordinary. The whole neighborhood seemed quiet, with the exception of one man who was walking down the street. The police stopped him and asked him some questions. <br><br>He seemed overly defensive and agitated that the police were talking to him. He was a tall, skinny man and looked vaguely familiar. I wondered if he was one of the men who was at my door. The police took down his information and let him go without any charges. <br><br>They searched the neighborhood and found nobody else who looked suspicious. They searched my house again and found nothing. I gave them the description of the man at my door, wearing a postal uniform, and the man at the side door wearing shorts. <br><br>The next day, I received a call from the police department saying that they found the USPS vehicle that was parked in front of my house. They tracked the vehicle to a local gas station and arrested the man driving the vehicle. <br><br>They found weapons in his car, including a large hunting knife, rope, duct tape, and a pair of binoculars. They also found blue shorts in the back of the truck. <br><br>There was no package in the vehicle. The man claimed he was just a recently hired employee of the postal service and that he was running a route he wasn’t familiar with. He had a conviction for breaking and entering in a different state. The police suspected that he may have been involved in other crimes, but couldn’t pinpoint anything in particular. <br><br>The man walking down the street who seemed overly defensive and agitated also had a prior record. He had a conviction of assault on a child. <br><br>I never saw either man again, but the experience left an unsettling feeling in my mind. I started locking doors and windows after that.