I was staying at a small two-bedroom
Airbnb during a vacation I took last year. This place was on the way to another
Airbnb that I was going to stay at for the main portion of the vacation, but
this was more of a rest stop for the night. The place was clean and
empty, just as expected. When I arrived, I walked
around the whole house to check it out before
bringing in my luggage and sitting on the
couch. It was probably 8 p.m. by this time of
night, and as I sat dozing off a little, the doorbell
ringing made me
jolt awake. I looked over at the front door, confused and alarmed. It
was a pretty small young girl, so it's safe to say
I'm often scared easily and don't like talking to strangers,
especially at night when I'm alone. I get up and walk over the door,
hearing two men whispering to each other. On the other side, the door doesn't
have a safety lock or anything, so I just keep the door
shut and call out to them. Hello, we are here for Airbnb.
Can you open the door? A man called out.
I loudly asked what they
meant, not understanding what being here for Airbnb was supposed to
mean. He responded, saying that he had the place
booked for the night. I knew there had to be
some sort of mistake, so I told him, still yelling throughout
the door, that I had it booked as well, and he
needed to contact the owner. The man didn't seem
happy about that. I'll doubt if I were
in his position. I would be pretty upset, too.
I heard one pair of footsteps walk away from the door
while the other
man asked again if I could open the door
so that we could talk about it. I was about to
give in by putting my hand on the doorknob,
thinking that he seemed believable. But something came over me telling
me to just play it safe. I said my husband would be down to figure
it out in a few minutes. I didn't want them
to think I was alone, so I was hoping that would catch
him off guard if something was bad. The man didn't respond. Thought I waited
for another minute because I didn't hear any footstep
s leaving. But then I moved the
short curtain to the side and looked out the small window. The man I was seemingly being
talking to was facing towards his car parked in the driveway, and
passing him was one of the most terrifying things. I
would never see a group of five people standing
further down the driveway, kind of hiding
as I waited for a signal. They all had some form of face covering.
I couldn't see the other side of the door, but I assumed there were
even more people over there. Knowin
g that this was very
likely a gang due to the city I was staying in, I was
completely horrified. I backed away from the
door, fully panicked, and tried not to perventilate. I then went to the
bedroom to get my phone and called the police. And I could hear more
footsteps all around the house. It was like I was surrounded by a
pack of wolves who, at any minute, could crush the
windows and break inside. I took my phone into the
bathroom with me and called 911. Trying to remain call The operator als
o told me to be quiet and
stay calm as they were sending a group my way. It would be there in just a few minutes. I stayed on the line, still hearing footsteps
walking around outside the place, until the horrible sound of wood bending and
sand snapping came to the front door. I was crying profusely now, trying
to muffle my mouth with my hand. I listened as a whole group of people
ran inside, opening doors and cabinets. Before one approached
the bathroom door and tried the handle, he
yelled, then
walked away. The group continued looting the house
before sirens were heard in the background. The police came to the
distance, and they began to scatter out of the place
they had all left by this time. The police got inside,
and all of my luggage was gone, and my car had its windows
shattered and was looted as well. One of the officers sat with me to discuss
some details, and he informed me that they would be having problems with large groups
or gangs breaking into the house recently. They don
't seem the main
goal is to hurt the residents at all, but rather to just
drop them off everything. So that's luckily why they left me alone
in the bathroom, knowing I wasn't a threat, whatever their intentions
were to harm me or not. It was still terrifying. I know it likely had little to do with me
staying at the Airbnb that night, but it has still made me really anxious every
single time I stayed at an Airbnb now. I was taking a solo trip
to Salt Lake City last year. I would never actually ha
d the chance to go. And when I did, it was always with my family. This was the first time I
was finally going to get to enjoy my time
somewhere else, all by myself. I know it sounds a bit weird,
but being alone is fine with me, especially since I would
never get to be alone anyway. I looked up both hotels
and Airbnbs in the area. And surprisingly, the airbnbs
were a lot nicer and less pricey. However, all the cheaper ones
were a bit farther away from the city. I was driving my own car out, so I
didn't
care too much about having to travel a bit to the city and went
with a nicely sized Airbnb. It was small, but the
kitchen and bedroom were nice, which was all I
really cared about it. I got there at 6 on Sunday
morning. The owner takes me the password and I
brought all my stuff inside. It was really nice, much better than small
apartment I shared with my roommate once. I got everything inside and set it up. I hopped on the couch and turned
on the TV. It was a 10-hour drive, so I was looki
ng forward to chilling for
the night and enjoying the silence. I fell asleep pretty quickly,
but it was only around 7 o'clock, so my buddy
woke me up a few hours later. The time was just past
10 and the TV was still on. I grabbed the remote and turned it off. Then got up to get a glass of
water before going to the bedroom. As I walked the living
room to the kitchen, I felt a strange cold breeze brush
against me with my tired eyes. I looked to my right and
saw the front door was fully open, my ey
es shut
open, and my heart pounded. I stared at the door for a moment,
then looked around the room. I knew I had closed it and locked it. Oh, this was really freaked me out. I walked over to the door
and closed it softly, listening intently for any sounds
of someone being inside. For reference, I'm not the biggest guy in
the world, but I am fairly tall and in shape. So, unless an intruder had a gun, I
felt confident I could force them anyway. I grabbed a kitchen knife. Still being quiet and
walk
ed room to room, checking every inch of the
house, nobody was there. This only confused me more,
and I sent a text to the homeowner asking if someone was supposed
to come over tonight or something. Explaining what happened was laid out,
so I didn't expect a response right away. I went around to every door. Looking each one. Then quickly checked the house
again while more awake than before. I was still really tired. I went to the bed and
fell asleep with no trouble. When I woke up, thought I was
much less calm than I was before. I heard something from outside. Not outside the house, but
outside my bedroom door. I didn't know what to
do and kind of just froze. Waiting for whoever was outside. The room to do something first. I sat there in bed. I thought about how the person
could have possibly gotten in. The only person who would have the password
to the door was the homeowner, so honestly, in that moment, I was sure it was him. This gave me more courage to think about it. There must be
some creepy guy who likes
to spy on the people who stay at his beam. I got out of bed, still not
having heard anything else, and grabbed my phone from
the nightstand to call the cops. I must have made too much noise,
thought because almost right away someone started running away from the door
and toward the front of the house. That only frightened me
more, knowing the intruder was standing right next to the
bedroom door the entire time. I delayed 911, but during the
time, it took for the cops to
arrive. Nothing else happened. The person had left. I found a hotel to stay at
for the rest of the vacation, but wasn't crazy. The owner of the Airbnb gave me a refund
because he was able to prove it wasn't him. He was very concerned about it, and
he was actually a really nice old man. It was already creepy enough
when I thought it was the owner, but knowing that it was just some
random guy makes it even worse. I don't know how he was able to get in, or why he was sucking me, but it still gives
me
chills thinking about it. The part I think about the most
is waking up and seeing the front door open now that I know that
someone was actually in the house, which means that whoever it was
came and saw me asleep on the couch, then proceeded to do whatever
it was they came there to do. It's just really unnerving and creepy, and it makes me never
want to be at an Airbnb alone.
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