We're All Insane - My Neighbor Tried To Kill My Family

Episode Date: March 11, 2024

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/INSANE and get on your way to being your best self In this chilling recount, Peyton delves into the terrifying ordeal faced by her family at the hands of their seemingly ordinary neighbor. What began as a typical existence in their neighborhood quickly spiraled into a nightmare when their neighbor's sinister intentions came to light. If you have a unique story you'd like to share on the podcast, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/ZiHgdoK4PLRAddiB9 or send an email to [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey guys, it's me Devorah. I just dropped an all new bonus episode inside my new subscription channel, We're All Insane Plus. This week's bonus episode is called My Brain was slipping into my spine. Listen now by subscribing to We're All Insane Plus inside your Spotify or Apple Podcasts app or go to we're all insane.com. Hi, I'm Peyton Homan. I'm 19 years old from Seattle, Washington, and this is a story of how my neighbor tried to kill my family. So a little background. I'm going to start in the background. I lived in the same house my whole life. My family lived there for 20 years. It was me, my mom, my dad, and my sister. She's eight years older than me, so quite a big age difference. And we lived in not the best area. We had our neighbors around us were okay, but two houses over. It was an old guy. And as he got older,

there was the homeless community moved into his house and kind of took advantage of the fact that he was older. So we always had homeless people walking up and down our house and we actually had people leave stuff outside of our house. Weird things like baby bottles and diapers, just weird things. And we had one lady was, we called it a bug stomper and she would just walk on imaginary bugs right across from our house. The bug stomper. I like that. That's funny. But we always had weird people.

Yeah. Around us. But it never was a big issue necessarily. Right. Until one morning we had, it was me, my mom, my sister home, and my mom was going to take me to school. And we saw this guy walking up front. Our house was two levels. It was like a street level.

and then stairs down and then our house and then more stairs down and was like the back alley of our house. And he was walking up front in front of our gate and taking pictures on his phone. And my mom felt very uncomfortable taking me young into school when there was someone out there. So she called the cops and they said they would stop by. Not sure if they ever did. She ended up taking me a school late. and that was kind of it, and I didn't think anything more of it.

And then that night, around like 2.45 a.m., my mom heard things on the side of our house because they had an AC unit, and she could hear through that. And so she went and kind of tried to check it out through our back window and saw a guy standing at our back door. And she heard keys jiggling, at first and she thought it was my sister because she lived.

My sister's bedroom was in the downstairs and we were all upstairs and she was 19 at the time. And so she would come and go and do whatever. But when she looked over, she saw a guy and she was very confused trying to get into. So then she woke up my dad and we assumed this has happened before to where people who live down the street, the homeless people would come and try to get in our door thinking it was their house. And so he opened the window and screamed wrong house and the guy looked up at him, continued trying to get in. He was like, wrong house, wrong house. The guy didn't care. So at that point, my dad went downstairs and was at the door, the back door where he was trying

to get in and told him, you need to leave like this is a wrong house, wrong house. And that made him angry and he started to walk back and forth between the back door and just where our like supplies was like random stuff in the yard and stripping off of his clothes and so at that time my dad was at the door and the guy was trying to kick in the door and then he told my sister you need to like yelled at my sister woke her up she went past and went upstairs up to my mom this one point, I was still sleeping. My mom was frozen. She didn't know what to do. Now at this point, he's a threat to us. And he continued banging. My dad's yelling at him. They're going back and forth. And my sister comes in and wakes me up and we go into my parents' bedroom and just hunker down in

there. And the guy eventually picked up a propane tank we had and threw it into the back door and just kept smashing into the back door with his feet. And then he backed up and we had stairs on the side of our house. He backed up, walked all the way around our house. And my dad went on the inside of the house up the stairs. And we had a wall kind of covering where the front door was a hallway. And he just stood there. And the guy came around and picked up metal lawn furniture and threw it through our window.

And it was a huge glass window. but it was double-paned, so it had two glass panes, and so it only made it through one. And that made him so mad that he didn't get fully through. So at that point... And at this point, did you know who the man was, or it was just a random guy? No, we had no idea who he was. And so while this is all going on, my sister dials 911 on the phone with him or with the cops and telling what's going on as it's going on.

and so he throws the chair through the window and my dad is they're yelling back and forth at this point and he is yelling at him you need to leave like this is not going to end well this I don't know who you are and the guy is screaming I'm going to kill you I'm going to kill you I'm going to kill you and my dad's confused because I have no he has no idea who this person is and I'm in the room listening to this and freaking out because this is nothing like this has ever happened and isn't supposed to. So yeah, he threw it through the window and then he was walking. We had like two steps up to our actual like porch area. He was walking up and down those up and down those pacing back and forth just screaming. And then he started after the window didn't work. He couldn't get in

through the window. He decided to put, we had a three pain door. So it was like three, just a wood door, but there was three panels. And he started kicking in the front door, kicking in the front door. And my dad's screaming to us, where are the cops, where are the cops? And the cops are on the phones. They're on their way, but they're not fast enough. I feel like in moments like that too, they never come fast enough. It feels so long.

Yeah. And he's screaming at us and we're screaming back. But he's also telling us to be quiet because he, doesn't want if the guy were to get in he doesn't want us him to know where we are and so the guy finally make his foot comes through the middle pain of the door and my dad at this time he had his gun and he used to train cops in the academy so he's very he knows what he's doing yeah and he gave him a warning shot so he shot to the left of him and it's actually funny because when this all came out on the news and stuff.

Everyone was like, oh, horrible aim, horrible aim. But he gave him a warning shot. And he shot to the left of him and told him, he says, the next one, I'm going to hit you. Right. Which was already nice because he was threatening to kill you guys. Yeah. Yeah.

And so that just made him more mad and made him freak out. And he screaming still. And then my dad ended up shooting him in the leg in his left artery. And so he stumbled back, fell back into our lawn. And we heard the gunshot. And so we peaked out the window. And I had a trampoline at the time because I was 11. And he was trying to pull himself up still on the trampoline and try to get back up.

And he's just screaming and screaming. And were any neighbors outside at this point? No, no, not at this point. And so as soon as the gun shot, my dad shot the second time, cops just. swarm and apparently they were there but they had to secure perimeter but on the phone my sister is telling the person he's going to shoot him he's going to shoot him we need someone here we need someone here and they didn't come until they heard that shot so they came down and the guys laying in our front yard there's glass all over our front porch and they make my dad crawl out in the glass

because at the time they don't know what the situation is and they have to secure it. But they lay my dad three feet from the guy and put him in handcuffs. And my dad's a big guy and he's had he has back problems and all. So they put him in handcuffs and my dad told the cop like my shoulder's going to pop out like can you cuff me in the front at least like and the guy as he's bleeding out and they're putting a tourniquet on him. He says, wah, wah, I just got shot. And my dad just looked at him. He was like, get me away from this crazy guy. Like he, I don't. don't know what he thinks, but get me away from him. So they, my dad tells them, hey, I have cameras, video and audio. So everything's recorded. So they take them out of handcuffs and they sit

them down. But at this point, they kept us separate. Me and my mom, my sister, and my dad, they kept us separate for statement purposes. And it took them nine minutes and 45 seconds, exactly, to get there, which is crazy because we live three minutes from the police station. Yeah. And it was in the middle of the night. It was in the middle of the night. Yeah, at 2.45, 3 a.m. So we get our statements. They get our statements. And in the middle of that, my dad, one of the cops comes in. And he's like, your dad's asking for some pill. Immediately, I know what pill it is. He has heart attacks. He's had heart attacks before. And it's a little pill that stops it. not stops it, but delays it and regulates everything.

So immediately I shot up. So he was actually having chest pain, not a full heart attack, but. Like symptoms. Symptoms, yeah, while this is happening because of the adrenaline. So we got him that. And then they took us, they ended up taking him in through the house. And it was so crazy because they had the little numbers everywhere where the gun shells were and everything. So they took both our statements.

and then they eventually let my dad back in. And then we were like, well, can we leave? Like, what's the situation? Now there's blood all over our front yard and glass everywhere. And we're like, we just don't want to be here looking at this now. And they were like, yes, you can leave. And we asked if we could go get some clothes in our rooms. They were like, oh, yeah, you want to get all dolled up for the news.

And we kind of laughed at them. Like, what are you talking? about it. And they were like, well, the whole newscast, it's three news channels are outside of your house already. And it had only been not very long at all. And so we were like, well, now we want to go out the back. We don't want to be filmed right now. We don't want any of that. We don't want to talk to the news at all. So we ended up going through the back alley and going to my grandma's house and staying there for a while. And then we find out who this guy was. He, we have known our neighbors for so long.

The whole, since we lived there, it's been like the same people. The neighbors right next door to us. It was an old lady and she had like a double level like ours, but it was blocked off the bottom level. So she was renting it out. To a guy who was out of state, he had just gotten divorced. He had three kids and he moved here. for, I don't know why, but he decided to move here without his kids, without his ex-wife.

And he is schizophrenic. And he was also doing heroin with the homeless people next door. So he, that night that it had happened, that it was him and the morning before when he was taking pictures. So they went through all of his stuff and searched things and then they took him to the hospital. They took him to Harborville, which it's like a intensive, like they need immediate help. And they took him there. And once he was stable, they gave him, the cop went in to interview him. And he was still on something and he was off his meds. So he was not taking schizophrenic meds and also on heroin. So it was a mix of the two. The police interviewed him.

in the hospital and he basically said that my dad had been stalking him and pointing lasers in his house along with one of our other neighbors in the back and that my dad had all these things in his backyard and this perfect family and basically he lost his family and so he was jealous that my dad had that family that was like one of the first things I think that's thought too because like I don't know I watch all those crime shows and like when they're trying to figure out people's MOs like there are a lot of times it's almost like it relates back to their life uh-huh yeah and that's when we figured out that he had a family we were like that it makes sense it makes sense um and we went ended up like going back in our camera footage like from our

our ring cameras and a week before my sister she was pulling out the driveway kind of fast and he was standing in our back driveway and she almost hit him but didn't notice him there and so he had been watching us and thinking these things for a long time yeah and so and our neighbor it was this old couple on the other side of us apparently he had come to their house right before and was banging on their doors banging on their doors but they didn't wake up or anything. And, well, they heard it, but they didn't go and confront. So I think my dad confronting the situation, that made him mad.

Yeah. It could have not been us. It could have been them if they confronted the situation. So do you think if he would have gotten in that he would have killed all of you, like if he could have or tried to at least? I think my dad, yes. So his main focus was your dad. Yeah, it was, that was his main focus.

what I know. Okay. Because my dad's the one who confronted him and he was saying, I'm going to kill you. Right. Yeah. And maybe like he kind of saw your dad is having what he didn't. He didn't or what he lost. Yeah. But it could have been if my mom confronted him or my sister that he was just, he didn't, maybe he didn't know who it was behind the door, but he was mad at that person. I'm going to kill you. Yeah. And it's scary because that's just mental illness is so real. Yeah. I mean, And I feel like at this point in the world, people know that or should know that. But it's just so sad because innocent people can die because someone's sick. Yeah. And that's what's scary is it.

It is just a sickness. But how aggressive it was and how it wasn't just a break in. It wasn't he was trying to break in to get things. Yeah. He was wanting. He said, I am going to kill you. It wasn't. He was robbing.

us or something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So do you remember being, like, do you remember how you felt in those moments or was it, is it kind of fuzzy because you were so young? It's kind of fuzzy, but I remember, because my mom, we were sitting when we were in the room hiding. She was trying, she tried to shove me in a closet and I was like, this is not working. Like, let me out because I'm very, my dad raised two girls. So we're very strong. We're very independent. Where my mom's a little more scared and shy. And so she's trying, she's freaking out.

But me and my sister want to be at the front of it, backing up our dad and helping if anything could go wrong. And so I remember being, I don't want to be in here. I don't want to be in here. And then we went on the side of the bed and then she was trying to cover me with the blanket. I didn't cry, which was surprising. And what's really weird is I don't remember hearing the gunshot. Okay.

My sister heard it. I don't remember hearing a gunshot, let alone too. Do you feel like that circumstance gave you any sort of PTSD? Very, yeah, very much. I'm sure you'll get to that. Yeah. Yeah, I will. So then after we found all that out, it made more sense, but it was still really hard.

We couldn't go back there. We stayed at my grandma's house for like a week or two, and then our friends went out of town, so we stayed at their house and we could not go back to the house at all. And we had, we had just bought in a property a little while before that to build a house on. And it was going to take a while to build. So we were like, let's get an apartment, wait for our house to be built and then we'll move in there thinking six months to a year. It ended up being five. So we moved into the apartment.

I'm Anna Garcia, host of True Crime News, the podcast. Every week we bring you in-depth coverage on cases making headlines, as well as those that go under the radar. Tune in for murders that defy explanation, mystery seeking exploration, and shocking secrets that will leave you breathless. Each week we honor the victims by going beyond the salacious in our search for justice. Crime never stops, and neither do we. Listen to True Crime News available now wherever you get your podcasts. And then... And did you guys not go back to the house because you didn't want to or was it because it was a crime scene or like both? We didn't want to. It was so hard because we saw this. That was our home and now once someone invaded that space, it doesn't feel like home anymore. It's scary. Yeah.

Yeah. So... Plus like after, I mean, too, you knew the neighbors, but at the same time it was clear that I feel like it probably wasn't the best area anymore. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And we even knew that for. while, but it was never, there was never anything violent. There was never anything actually scary.

It was people on drugs. Exactly. But then once it crosses the line of your safety, it crossed the line. Yeah. So we moved into the apartment and like a year later is when we finally had courts. So they arrested him. There was video evidence of everything, video and audio. So they arrested him and he sat in jail.

And then it took like a year for us. to actually get in court with him. And once we got that, we all wrote statements. We all did everything. We all went to the actual court date. And when I walked into the courtroom and he, we sat down and he came out, I was like, you guys got the wrong guy. Like, this is not him.

And we are so confused looking at him because he looks like such a normal guy. And we were like, no, this is not the monster we saw that night. He was crazy. I had this picture in my head. And then seeing this, I was like, that is not him. He looks like a normal guy. And he, because once he got in jail, they made him take his meds. And he obviously wasn't on drugs.

So he got up there and he said what he said. And then my dad, our lawyer told us, we gave them your statements, but it's not going to do anything for you to get up there and talk. So my dad went up there and he. talked for a little bit and then my dad told him the one thing I want you to do is turn around and apologize to my family and he did he turned around and he apologized and he also said in his statement and stuff that we had a little dog a little miniature pincher and he was a his name was Bob Barker this episode is sponsored by better help as we all know relationships are not easy some people say that they should be easy that they should just flow but I don't

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H-E-L-P-com slash insane. Now back to today's episode because he was a barker. And he would bark all the time. And he said in his statement that our dog was barking and he was a vet tech. And that he felt that he had to go and save the dog. Which doesn't add up with the, I'm going to kill you. you, but that was his kind of excuse. Okay.

When he made a statement and he was on the stand, did he seem mentally, like more mentally stable at this point? Yes. He seemed completely normal, like a normal guy you would see walking down the street. And that's what was so hard is for the year before that. I had so much hatred and resentment built up for this guy. And then seeing him, I'm like, you're just a normal guy. Like you just messed up.

You had a hard time in life. you did bad thing, but you are just a normal guy. So it was hard for that shift. He ended up only getting, I believe it was 12 months in jail or maybe, no, 15 months in jail and 18 months probation. And at that time, he had already been in there for a year. And that year counted towards his 15 months because of the issue, it wasn't assault. It wasn't robbery. they didn't know what to classify it as.

So it was kind of... Attempted murder? That's why I'm like, maybe anyone? Yeah. So they didn't know what to really classify it. And my grandma, she used to work in the justice system, and she knew the judge. And so the judge tried her best for us.

She was even crying in the courtroom. It was very emotional. But she tried her best to get, what was right for us as much as she could. So we ended up doing all that. We didn't hear anything after that. We had restraining orders, which at that point, it was an extra security blanket, but it wasn't really, after seeing him, he's not going to do anything.

So as far as I know, he's back with his family. He left Seattle. They evicted him, our neighbors, because we want no. ties to that and we knew them very well so it was she felt the lady felt like she was responsible for it in some way when she isn't it's not her fault at all but she felt that way so it was kind of hard for her um but then we were living in the apartment and like i said six months to a year and end up being five years we had a lot of complications in the apartment and oh five years five years five years And you said five, I thought you meant months.

Oh, five years. Five years. Wow. Yeah. So it was a drastic change in what we thought. Yeah. The apartments we moved into weren't the best area, but like I said, we thought we were going to be there a short amount of time. And after all that had happened with our house, it was kind of a, everyone was like, this will never happen to you again.

This was a once in a lifetime thing. Like, nothing even close to this. will happen to you. And so in the apartment, I ended up sleeping on my parents' floor for like nine months. I couldn't sleep by myself. I was freaked out. I still struggle with sleep issues. I'm taking melatonin like crazy. And we all, they recommended for all of us to go to a therapist, a family therapist. And we went, but that's just not my dad's thing. Or my sisters, really. And so they stopped. And me and my mom, continued to go. And the lady we went to ended up not helping very much. So we went to a couple different. And I've gone through multiple therapists throughout this time because I do now suffer

for PTSD. But yeah, slept on my parents for a long time. Eventually I kind of got over it and was able to live normal life more. And then a few years into living in the apartment, My mom left to come pick me up from school because at this time I was out of the school district range. I couldn't take bus. Couldn't do anything. And she came to pick me up from school. Probably wasn't gone more than 20 minutes. And I walk into our apartment and the door was unlocked. And I was making fun of my mom because she always made fun of my sister for leaving the front door unlock and yelling at her for it. And I was like, oh, you left the front door unlocked. And I walk in and we had a backslide. or glass door and I walk in there's just glass all over our front door all over our living room and a glass door is shattered and I was like you've got to be yeah I was like no way so I yell at my mom

and like get out get out get out and we run up to our neighbors upstairs and we sat in there called the cops called my dad they came and all they had stolen was my mom's jewelry box for this bedroom back but it had all her jewelry and her passport in it but We had TVs all over. My sister had two laptops sitting just on our bed. Doors open. I had a laptop just sitting on my bed door open. And they had exited through the front door.

So they would have to bypass all of our rooms and see that. So we kind of think it's someone we knew because it was in the 20 minute time frame. They were in and out. And that's the only thing they stole. So after that, they came and replaced our thing. And I'm like, so much for this. will never nothing like this will ever happen to you again and now it's two times we're living it so that caused a kind of a rejoice of the PTSD for me so that kind of caused like a reminder of PTSD as I was getting

over it and I feel like too before it's like it happened in the middle of the night and then now this was during the day yeah so it's like okay I'm not safe at any time not safe at any time and it cause like I wouldn't go out places for a long time I didn't even want to go anywhere without my dad because in my eyes he was the one who saved me from that situation and so I didn't want to go anywhere without him I there was one time we went to the space needle and try to go up and he had his gun on him and they didn't tell us until like we were about to go on that he couldn't carry it and I was like well I'm not going on because I was so terrified of public spaces and because if it happened in my home, why wouldn't it happen anywhere?

And so I was freaked out about all that. And it was hard with the house situation reading all the comments after about a lot of people being their stances on guns. And I get it. But he knew what he was doing. He's licensed. he used to train cops. So, and if he wouldn't have done that, I don't know what would have happened that night. And that's what's the scary part of it. People can have their opinions, but I think that there is absolutely nothing wrong with having a gun in your home to protect you or you and your family. And that's...

That's safety. It's safety. Absolutely. And until you, and that's what I've, I've written papers about it in school, until you're in that situation, you don't realize how much you do want that. Yeah. And I definitely think there should be rules and regulations. Oh, 100%.

And not anybody should be able to just go and train and get a gun. Like you should have to pass a lot of tests and have to do. Sure. Yeah. But if you pass those tests and you want to protect yourself, you have the right. Yes. This is a crazy fucking world. Exactly.

And every, you don't know who you're living next to at that point. And not only just that, but, you know, as many issues, as guns can cause, they can also save a lot of people. So, fuck. That's my stance on it. That's what I always said for him. I don't know, I could have been dead that night. Or what if my dad wasn't home?

And what if, right, what if he wasn't home? What if the person or what if that guy didn't target you guys and targeted somebody else that didn't have those means of protection? Yeah. And that's why in some sense, I'm glad it was us and not our elderly neighbors because what would they have done. Right. And that's what scares me.

Yeah, but reading all the comments and... So where were these comments on like online? So on the news, they would like post theirs on like Facebook or Instagram and then everyone comment underneath. A lot of people were actually supportive, which I was happy about because I was expecting some negative because you don't know the whole story. People don't get the whole story. But at the end of the day, he was protecting his family.

But a lot of the comments were supportive. there were some saying why he doesn't know how to shoot he doesn't know how to shoot i would have shot him dead but what people don't know is he's trained so he knew where to shoot to not kill him and if he would have killed him this probably would have been a lot different situation he probably would have been in jail so so great i love the way the things were and that's he was smart about it he thought about it and he didn't just react on impulse but it was hard to read read all those comments. Oh, I'm sure. And having my friends, because I didn't go to school, obviously. And then I wasn't answering text. I wasn't answering anything. And all my friends

saw it on the news and they know my house. And so then getting the calls of, oh my God, what, what is happening? And my friend, my best friend, she had told me, she was like, I thought you were dead. I thought it was, you were dead and gone because you weren't answering text. You didn't show up to school. She was like, that's just where my mind went. And so it didn't just affect my family. It affected all our friends, all our family, everyone because of just a change. And the reality, it brings to people of like, okay, now I know someone who this has happened to. Why couldn't it happen to me?

Like it seems like such a, when you hear it on the news or something, it seems like such a out of sight thing that could happen. Like it will never happen to you, it will never happen to you. But you never know. Yeah, and I think that that's the case with a lot of things that you see or that you hear about. You hear about it and you can feel bad, but you never think it's going to happen to you until unfortunately it could or it does. I already, I mean, even just from little things that I've seen or that I've experienced, which weren't even that major, I feel like I have little bits of like PTSD or I get scared if I hear a certain type of noise and things like that. So I can only imagine from something like that happening. Like I'd be any noise or anything, you get scared.

And that's now I'm even more like diligent. Like when I was younger, I had my teenage phase where I didn't really care. No, I know. And then the older you get. I'm like freaking out about everything. I'm like, I need door locks. I need window locks. I need everything because it freaks me out.

Trust me. Like I was the same way. Growing up it felt like when I was in high school, I didn't care about anything. There was no fear. And now it's like all the you think about things more, you're way more aware, which is a good thing. but those fear levels just increase and even things like I feel like now that happened that I feel like years ago with my young mind that didn't care I wouldn't have thought anything about it and now it's like you really have to think twice and you have to take extra measures to be careful and to protect

yourself and you're saved and scary it's very scary it is very scary luck I still live with my parents and my biggest fear moving out is I won't have that security. of knowing my dad has cameras, my dad has everything, of not knowing or being as secure as I know I am in that house. Right. And I feel like thankfully for you, since you were raised by somebody like your dad, like you have those means to be taught and learn how to protect yourself. And I feel like when you get to that age where you do live alone, you could get yourself

to a point where you know that you're fully prepared. Like you have the cameras, you know how to protect yourself the best that you can. feel like at that point you kind of just have to let it go. You know what I really? I'd be like, all right, I have everything in order that I can at this point. I'm going to be fine. But it's tough. And that's one of the things I've had to realize as I've gotten older in dealing with

this is there's nothing that because for a long time it was why us, like why us. But there's nothing I could have done to prevent it. There's nothing I could have done to change it. It is what it is at this point. And it's just learning now. And I'm glad it happened for some reasons because it definitely made me and my family closer. And because we were all in an apartment now. And it made me and my family closer.

And I'm glad it didn't happen to anyone else. And because we were prepared for that. Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. Did they ever end up catching the person that robbed you guys in the apartment? No. But I don't know.

how long ago it was after that happened. I want to say months, but it could have been a year or two. Same thing. My mom comes and picks, getting me from school. And we walk in, doors locked this time. We walk in and we smell this, like, weird smell. And I'm like, what is that? Same apartment, yeah.

Smell this weird smell. And I hear, like, almost like revving. And I'm like, what is that? We walked to the back of my mom's apartment. and there is a work van in our apartment. And I just look at her. I'm like, what do you mean? It, you know, like the big white work vans, like the RAM work vans.

Half of it is in my mom's bedroom. And we're like, we just look at you telling her, and we run out, because now we're worried about structural. We run out and at that time, the property manager, like, of our apartment was there and yelling back and forth with the guy. The guy is in the van and still trying to back up, still trying to back up, still trying to go. He's like going forward and back and he's not listening to us or anything. And so she's on the phone with the cops. The cops finally get there and they get, he would not come out of

that van. He was still trying to go. And the cops finally get here. Pull him out. He had peed himself and he was so drunk. He couldn't even make words. He couldn't hold his head up, nothing. So he had, our apartment was in the back. And it was like our apartment, some grass, and then some bushes. And the parking lot was all the way in the front. He had jumped the curb, gone into the bushes, and then tried to back up and just straight into our apartment. So half of his van was in our apartment.

And he lived like upstairs and like to the right. So that was an accident because he was drunk? Uh-huh. Yeah. Okay. But we knew the guy. Okay. Turns out we knew the guy.

My sister used to babysit his kids, him and him. his ex-wife's kids and my mom used to get her hair down by her. Right. And so we called, we ended up calling the wife because he was on his way to pick up his kids at school and she was out of town. And so we contacted his wife and he went to jail and then they had to put us in a hotel because we couldn't stay in there because it's half the van. And I just remember like, once they let us go in and get stuff walking in and my mom and my dad

had this dresser that they had forever since they like got married and my cat loved to stay under it and I just remember walking in and the dresser being demolished and freaking out being like my cat my cat like where's my cat she's safe she's fine thank god she's hiding but she had that point had now been through the thing that happened at my house the apartment breaking and now a car in our apartment That is crazy. Yeah. So they took him to jail. They put us in an apartment.

He ended up coming back for a while into the apartment. And then they ended up moving him. They didn't evict him. They just moved him into a different like sections of the apartment. So he wasn't nearest. And then did you guys ever end up getting the house that was being built? Yeah. So it took a lot longer because this was so my house thing happened.

I think it was 2016. And then trying to build for a few years. And then 2020 hit COVID, everything, which actually benefited us. So my dad owns a construction company. And so he was doing a lot of it, but also running his company. So it was hard to balance it. And he had some issues. And then obviously our house thing happened while we were building it.

So a lot of things that happened. during it. But finally, we built it all and I remember the morning we got, we had to pass inspection before we could move in. We had, at this time, we had done our lease to where it was month by month. So we had all of our stuff like kind of ready, like hoping we had pass inspection. And my dad called and said we passed. And it looked like we were like skipping out on rent. We were moving out of there so fast. And it was so nice to be out of that apartment. Right. And back into a house, I'm sure. Yeah, yeah. Oh my gosh. So are you still in therapy now for everything or no? Yes, I am. I stopped for a long time. Because you always think you're healed and you're fine. And we never really are. Yeah. And then you and then go back. And thankfully I've, because it took me a while in the past to find someone I liked. And then she stopped going. When I stopped going around the same time, she stopped working at that place. So I hunted her down and I found her and I'm now going to the same person. Good. And it's. And it's. Because you never know.

Certain things pop up. Right. Things trigger other things. And it's hard. And even age. Like we were saying like the older you get the more, it's weird. Things that have happened years ago that you thought didn't have an effect or you were, you thought you handled it.

They can pop up again. And then you're like, oh, wow. I actually am not healed from that. Exactly. Yeah. And that's something that I've realized that I just, the older I've gotten, things just either pop up in the past or it's harder for me to get through things now because I am so much more aware of what's happening. But I was somebody that never really did therapy either. And then as I've

gotten older and once again, I agree, like finding someone can be really, really challenging. It's hard. And it's a pain in the ass because how many times do you want to share your life and your story? Exactly. But it's worth it. Once you find somebody, I think it's so important and good to always have somebody to talk to. Yeah. Because I think it can just really, even if it doesn't fully heal you, I think that it can really help ease some of the worries like we were saying. too. And as scary as this world is, I think that we need to know that we can't worry and we can't have this, like live in fear because like you said, we cannot control anything. Exactly.

We can only learn from it and then prepare for if something happens. And that's what I've learned from most of this is, especially after seeing the guy and realizing he's just a normal person, it made it scarier. Right. But it's- What do they say about serial killers? They look normal. They all look normal. and like normal people and they do normal things except behind closed doors.

Right. And that's what the scariest part is you don't know. So you can't predict or you can't, you can just prepare yourself. And that's something that's hard to realize because you can't shut yourself in your house the whole time. And even when people say that, I'm like, it happened at my house.

Like it happened in my safe space. Right. Yeah. And that's why you can't, you can't live in fear. And that's no way to live either. And it's scary and it's sad. And I mean,

I can't say it enough. Like we really do live in a scary world. but we do what we can. Yeah, exactly. But I loved your story, even though it was traumatic. Very true. No, you did such a good job telling it. Like I said before, I feel like when somebody can tell a story in detail like that,

and especially you being so young, like you. Yeah. Not even just now, but like young when it happened, you know, it's crazy, but you did such a good job. Thank you. And I think that I'm still shocked at how many things have happened even after that. That's what's crazy. It's like it wasn't.

Right. Even the van, because when you first. walked in, you're probably like, oh my God, again. I'm like, yeah, what is going on here? Now they're backing the van in the house to steal everything. But no, you did such a good job. And honestly, thank you so much for reaching out and wanting to come on. Of course, of course.