Hello, I have a scenario of a potential home break in that we are trying to wrap our head around. Advice, experience, and references would be very much appreciated.

Event Details: I was out of town, leaving my GF (Girl) and young puppy home alone. Here’s our story: Girl goes to bed at 10 PM. She wakes up sometime between 3AM – 4AM to a man standing over her in the pitch dark bedroom. As we are going over the details tonight, a few days later, here’s what she recalls: She could roughly make out a dim headlamp or goggles on the man, a dimly lit analog watch, and the man is using a cell phone, or cell phone like device. She can’t make anything else out in the dark. The man walked around the room a bit, takes some puffs from a vape pen, sits down in front of the bed and plays on his phone (or phone like device), and then leaves. She estimates he was in the bedroom about an hour total. She states he never touched her or attempted to, nor did he get on the bed, but he did watch her for awhile. It’s not clear how well he was able to see in the dark either or what he was doing. During the event she pretended to be asleep but was secretly texting her mom under the covers, who called the cops on her behalf. The man left the room at some point, and not long after the cops arrive and find the apartment door is locked. As they start knocking, Girl runs out of the bedroom and lets them in. They turn the place over and find no one while Girl is in shambles. She just spent the past hour with a gut feeling she would be raped or killed while he stood over her.

The apartment details: There is only one way in and one way out. 1 door with a door lock and an external facing dead bolt (meaning the key hole is external and can technically be picked or opened with a key from the apartment building hallway). In hindsight, I’ll get the deadbolt changed to internal only ASAP. I’m the only apartment in the entire building who has an external facing deadbolt and I’m not sure why that is but is an important note.

Security Camera Details: I have 2 Nest security cameras but neither of them had been pointed at the entry door. One would technically catch the feet of someone entering the apartment but it’s not clear; however, both always catch the noise of keys when I unlock and open the door myself. The other sits over the living room but would cover the bedroom door at least. (The past month I’ve been more focused on catching puppy pee). However, during the night of the event, the cameras picked up no noise or video of an intruder. I can see the exact time Girl locked the apartment door, went to the bedroom and turned in for the night, and the exact time the police started knocking on the door. I reviewed 12 hours of footage prior to the event (in case the intruder came in earlier in the day and hid about) and also did not see an intruder come in.

The building details: 4 story building in a very foot traffic area. There’s about 50 units per floor so is a decent sized building. I’d estimate an average of 1,000 – 3,000 people walk past my building outside each Friday night as it’s a social area. The event happened on a Friday night. There are a number of doors to get in the building, as well as a parking garage. All have cameras and all require an electronic key. However, I will say some of the parking garage doors don’t always close all the way so someone walking along could try to get in without needing a key or being seen. And it’s not uncommon for people to let strangers into the building when they ask to be let in. Last, there are no cameras in the hallways or stairwells. So it’s fathomable someone could get to my apartment without being detected by the building.

Neighborhood details: It’s a trendy area. High in foot traffic yet a low crime rate for the city. However, within a 2-3 mile radius there are higher crime neighborhoods, and it’s not uncommon to see a homeless person walking around from time to time, or late night drunks.

Girl details: In case the event was sexually motivated. She’s a 5’10” model. She’s not famous or anything but is very good looking. Does not do drugs, wasn’t drinking, didn’t take any sleeping pills, and wasn’t watching any scary movies before bed. She was reading Harry Potter before bed so wasn’t thinking about intruders or her safety either. Nothing was out of the ordinary in her bed time routine. This was the 2nd consecutive night I was out of town and she was staying alone.

Cops: The door was locked when they arrived, they found no intruder, no one was physically hurt, and nothing was stolen. They called it a day after 5 minutes and left uninterested in pursuing further.

Other Details:

1. The apartment building states they don’t have any cameras that could assist us in identifying if a break in happened, and none of the few cameras they have on sight spotted anyone unusual during the hours of the event. I’ve cased the building and frankly they don’t have many cameras in general.
2. No one besides me and my GF have been in my apartment in the past 2 months. No apartment staff, maintenance person, friends or other.
3. The property manager tells me none of the staff checked out my apartment key. There’s no master key for staff to carry. They state is someone wanted in my unit, they’d need to check out my key from some locker, which no one reported doing. They could be inaccurate in their statement but I don’t know enough.
4. My puppy was behaving unusual during the event. He normally stays on the bed throughout the night; however, when the intruder was in the room, Girl states my puppy jumped off the bed and was sniffing about the intruder and the room in general. Honestly this is a big flag for me.
5. Sleep paralysis theory. I’m on the side of thinking my GF had sleep paralysis and dreamed the scenario up (and secretly hoping that’s what it is). It’s an extremely dark room when we sleep so it’d be difficult to make out an intruder vs a dream state figment of the imagination; however, there are a few things that give me pause.
   1. Technically my entry door can be opened from the outside, either by key or picked locks, so it is physically possible someone got in.
   2. While the intruder was in the room, the GF was fully functioning. She was texting under the covers while pretending to be asleep. I have 6 texts from her which I woke up to the next day that were all crisp and coherent about an intruder and asking me to help and call 911. She also texted her dad and her mom much more. Her mom is a light sleeper and was responding. They had a full text conversation allowing her mom to get the details needed to call the police to my building and unit.
   3. Puppy behavior. Why did he wake up and jump off the bed? And why was he also sniffing about in that direction. Girl says she can’t tell how the two interacted as she was pretending to sleep but that behavior alone is strange for him.
   4. Movement. She says he was walking around, and she could distinctly make out a watch and a cell phone light with the figure which she nor I can explain. At least in my limited experiences with sleep paralysis, the “presence” I felt never moved and always stayed in one place.

My big questions:

1. My security cameras have no “events” during this time even though one has the bedroom door in full sight. We keep the bedroom door closed when we sleep so the puppy doesn’t try and sneak out to pee somewhere. So you’d think an intruder would have made enough movement or noise walking about or entering or leaving my bedroom or apartment to create an “event” for Nest. I mean how slow/quiet can one move before being detected? Does anyone know that answer? Or perhaps the guy had my account password and deleted his videos before I woke up and saw them, or perhaps he had some sort of blocker?
2. If there was an intruder, what would the intruder have been after or doing? Nothing was stolen and girl was thankfully untouched.

She can’t prove it, but Girl is adamant the event is not sleep paralysis and she’s very shaken up. I think more evidence points to sleep paralysis, but there’s potential someone very good could have broke in, right?