The Noisy Thirsty Intruder

I live in a small town in central Texas. In March of 1998 I separated from my husband and moved out of our home to a one-bedroom apartment across town. I moved into this apartment with my two daughters. The apartment was in an 8-plex building and was the front first-floor apartment closest to the small parking lot. The place was small with a kitchen, dining area/living room combo, and bedroom with a connected bath. The kitchen/dining/living room combo was L-shaped so that when you were in the kitchen you could not see into the living room and vice versa.

While moving into the apartment my husband would not allow me to take much of our furniture, limiting me to only 1 pickup load. (At the time of our separation we had been married for nine years - I can only say he was a real peach of a guy--) So out of a house full of furniture I only took an entertainment center, TV, baby bed, sofa, and two dining room chairs. I used an air mattress to sleep on for the first few months.

Within the first couple of weeks there were strange occurrences within the apartment. I did not like to be alone in the house. I found that when things were quiet, such as when the girls were asleep, I could sense and hear these occurrences with more clarity. Most of the feelings and sounds I dismissed as my imagination. The first unnerving event was with my television. While watching a movie I would suddenly hear a loud pop! It was like a combination of a bang and a popping sound that would occur within or very close to the television. The television was only about three years old - had perfect sound and picture except for this VERY LOUD pop. Aside from the fact that I was worried I'd have to buy a new TV, nothing else would happen, only the loud pop. So I'd go back to watching the movie. This "popping" noise would increase in frequency as the months went on, but my television remained normal. It would occur when I was alone or with friends. And it would startle you because it was so loud and sudden. Everyone who heard it would comment that they had never heard such a thing.

The next event would happen many times during the six months that I lived in the apartment. While watching TV or reading I would hear - a distinctive series of sounds from the kitchen - someone would open the cabinet, take out a big plastic cup, close the cabinet, and open the refrigerator. That was it. I'd get up, cautiously, and look around the corner into the small kitchen. No one there, no cup on the counter, fridge is closed. This would happen at least once or twice a week and it did not matter if I was alone or not. The sounds were very distinctive, even to the point that I *know* the cup was a big plastic one. (The cabinet next to my refrigerator did not have cups or glasses in it. It held cans and spices.) Late one night, around 2am, I had two friends over watching a movie, we had just eaten pancakes so the kitchen was a mess. We were quite engrossed in the movie when the sound of the cabinet, cup, and refrigerator occurred in the kitchen. It totally freaked out my two friends and they didn't know what to think. One friend insisted that one of my kids had to have gotten up and gone in there. He got up to check and was freaked out to find that the kitchen was empty and the fridge was closed. As time went on these sounds became more frequent and I would get more afraid to check the kitchen, though I was still compelled to do so. You could also hear these sounds from the bedroom.

One of my cousins worked the late shift in town but lived in another city nearby. Occasionally when he had to work overtime and would be too tired to drive he would come by and sleep on my couch until morning. I had given him a key to my apartment for this purpose. One night, not long after I had finally bought a real bed, he woke me up very upset. He said that he had let himself in and been surprised to see me sitting up on the couch waiting for him. He had turned on the lamp by the door and very startled when he saw that I was not there. No one was on the couch at all. He claimed he could see a person sitting there perfectly because of the light from the streetlight coming through the window. He could remember details such as that their hair was sticking up, they had their hands folded in their lap, and that he thought they were sitting cross-legged because he did not remember seeing their legs below the knees or feet. He definitely saw something that night because he would not sleep on the couch and was too scared to drive. He slept on the floor next to my bed until morning. Some weeks later a similar event again took place with him and he refused to stay over anymore unless I moved. Prior to my cousins experiences, I believe that I also had encounters with this intruder, though I never saw it, I would get up during the night to go to the bathroom, but often I would not go into the living room because of a creepy and sinister feeling I would get. I would hurry past my bedroom door and get quickly into bed.

I did finally move in October to a different place. A year or so later we were having a party when someone mentioned that they had lived at that apartment building. He asked if I had ever noticed anything odd. We compared notes about different strange experiences that went on while we lived there. As a note, my children never seemed to notice anything other than the noise the TV would make. For the record, we still have that television, it never made that noise again, and it still works wonderfully.