The night months of surveillance paid off

I was a young single mom in my early twenties and lived in a town house complex that was really nice, so I felt very comfortable personally, but not so much on the safety and security of the complex. My gut was always twitching, and I could never shake the feeling that I was being watched.<br><br>At the time I was going to school as well as working almost 40 hours a week. I was always in a rush and never had time to stop and smell the roses. I lived in a state that had only the summer and winter seasons, so it gets extremely cold. Also, the complex I lived in had a parking lot out in the front, which my town home was in the back, and it was a hike to walk to the front of the building. I would often take a stroll because I never really felt comfortable walking in the dark. I always had a bad feeling walking in the dark. So, I would have to leave out for work, classes, or personal errands an hour before I had to be somewhere just to get there on time. I had to give myself plenty of time to make it to the front and back of the building.<br><br>One night I decided to stay up late and watch the parking lot. I sat on my back patio, and in the cold, shivering watching all the lights in the parking lot flicker. I saw people coming and going, and cars passing by. Some would stop and let passengers out, while others would drive by so fast they blew past a stop sign. I sat outside for almost four hours until I finally went to bed. Nothing out of the ordinary, but still a weird vibe that I just could not shake.<br><br>I began doing this almost nightly, watching the parking lot. I also started to notice which cars belonged to which residents. I also started to notice all the visitors coming and going to residents homes. I started making mental notes of people’s comings and goings and the frequency of the visitors. I noticed some stayed all night, others came in the middle of the night, and some would just pop in and then leave. There was this one car that I saw almost every night, and the occupant in the vehicle would get out and just walk around almost casing the complex.<br><br>I noticed that the car started to get closer and closer to my side of the complex. I saw the car driver park in many of the empty parking spots on my side of the complex. I noticed that the driver was checking all the doors and windows. I decided to go to my front door. When I looked out my front door, I saw a man with a hoodie on pulling on my door handle, testing to see if it was unlocked. I was terrified to say the least, and really did not know what to do. I knew I had to say something, scream something, or else face the consequences.<br><br>When I yelled, “What the fuck do you think you’re doing,” the guy took off in a dead ass sprint. I chased after him. He jumped in a car that was waiting on him and they sped off. I took the car’s tag number down and called the police. I gave them the tag number and they said they would send someone over. The cop came over and took my statement.<br><br>Weeks went by and I had forgotten about the incident. One day I was at the laundromat and I saw the guy who had tried to break into my townhouse. He was standing next to me, and I was doing my laundry. When I saw him, my heart started to flutter, and I knew it was him. I really do not know how I knew it was him, but I knew. I slowly but surely got my phone out and took a picture of him. I texted the picture to the police officer who took the report from me.<br><br>The next day the cop called me and said, “You know how you always had that gut wrenching feeling that something was not right?” I said yes. He said, “Your gut was right.” He told me that the guy who was casing the complex and attempting to break into townhouses was a serial rapist who had been all over the city for months. The cop was like, “You see he would go into these townhouses that were unlocked and wait until the middle of the night to assault women, and he never left fingerprints or any DNA, so it had been hard to catch him.”<br><br>He also told me when I chased him down the street it scared him and made him move to a different part of the city. He said, “The night you saw him at the Laundromat, we arrested him, and his name is Monte Jones. When we arrested him, we found all sorts of women’s underwear and they all had stains on them. He was arrested and is currently serving time.” The cop also said, “Jones was also relieved when the arrest finally came because he had been so stressed since the incident at your complex when you chased him.”<br><br>Therefore, please always trust your gut.