Are you troubled by strange noises in the middle of the night? Do you experience feelings of dread in your basement or attic? If the answer is “yes,” then don’t wait another minute. Pick up the phone and call 911.
That’s exactly what one University District couple did Wednesday evening after they found something strange in their neighborhood. It was something weird, and it didn’t look good.
The clock had just struck 10 when the couple returned to their condo near NE 42nd and 11th Avenue NE and found the remnants of apparent paranormal activity.
The couple’s home had been ransacked: someone—or something—had torn open their mail, spread clothing throughout the house, smeared lotion on a door handle, removed the inner soles from all of their shoes, screwed a single screw into a piece of scrap wood—which had been crammed into the space between a door and its frame—and placed an upside-down can of paint on top of their toilet. A purse, containing a 27-year-old woman’s ID card, had also mysteriously appeared on top of the couple’s bed.
So, rather than calling those hack Ghostbusters, the couple called Seattle police.
Officers arrived at the scene and began searching for signs of a break-in—a splintered door frame or broken lock—but found nothing. The only other way into the couples’ home would have required someone to shimmy up a tree and climb through a window.
As the hour grew late, officers became increasingly baffled as, again and again, they dusted for fingerprints throughout the condo and found nothing.
The couple told police nothing appeared to be missing from their home—save for $50 in cash—so officers returned to the North Precinct to document the bizarre case.
A short time later, officers received a second call from the couple, who said they had begun hearing noises coming from under their bed.
Now facing the possibility of having to figure out how to arrest a poltergesist, officers dutifully sped back to the University District condo.
They arrived just in time to see a 27-year-old woman emerge from the couple’s bedroom.
The woman—who officers discovered was the owner of the mysterious purse found inside the home—appeared to be having a panic attack. After officers called for medics to treat the woman, she informed police she had been on a “meth rampage” for several days, and had also broken into another home around the block earlier in the evening.
Officers spirited the woman away to to King County Jail and booked her for Investigation of Burglary.