a few months ago I treated my girlfriend to a vacation in Paris we stayed at some hotel called hotel atmospheres my job allows me to work remotely from my laptop on my own hours so at some points during our couple days there I would sit in a lounge of the hotel by the Wi-Fi area to get my work done my phone started to ring it was my girlfriend calling me as I picked up the phone I went to the nearby room where the coffee was and poured myself a cup my girlfriend was calling me from
the room talking about the things we should do that day when I walked back to the lounge area where I left my laptop I got a sickly feeling when I realized it wasn't there anymore I went first thing to the lady at the front desk to ask her if she'd seen anyone leave the lounge area with a laptop she apologized and said she hadn't seen anyone I asked her to check the cameras to which she responded with there not being any cameras in the lounge area and that she was also non-controlled the footage that the
cameras caught she would have to get in contact with her manager who was not working that day she offered I submit a lost or stolen property for him I was absolutely disgusted with the service and planned on having a word with the manager the next day I had no choice but to go back to our room and angrily events of my girlfriend she tried calming me down saying there was nothing we could do about it and that it was best we just go out and enjoy the vacation I was paying for as angry as I
was I had to accept that she had a point we both turned off notifications on our phones so we wouldn't be distracted something we usually did on vacation then we went out and explored a great amount of the city did a little bar hopping then got back to our hotel late at night it wasn't until we finally crashed into bed that I opened my phone to check for new emails and texts and such since I couldn't do that on my lap now when I was going through my email I realized every single email I'd received
that day was opened this included emails from work and a couple relatives I started to panic because I knew how much delicate information I had it not just my email account but my whole computer which was signed in when I left it I basically had all my personal information saved on that computer including home address phone numbers personal pictures passwords credit card info bank account info I was a fool for leaving it unattended to for even a minute I immediately changed all the passwords to my emails and other important accounts that didn't matter for what
was about to come though after opening my messages app to check my text since I hadn't been all day I noticed text from an unknown number it was a bunch of pictures pictures that were saved on my computer dad personal pictures that I wouldn't ever want anyone to see then there were pictures I didn't remember taking pictures of a hotel hallway and a hotel door it was our hotel door there was also a picture of me standing at the front desk talking to the lady about my missing laptop it was taken from behind the glass
door at the entrance of the hotel under all the pictures was a text saying I have all of your info including your address and your current hotel room this was sent using an untraceable phone number don't bother contacting the police the rest of the message basically demanded I pay certain amount of Bitcoin to a specific Bitcoin wallet address or else it literally said or else I'm not even fabricating this I didn't know what else to do besides show my girlfriend the messages as well as the embarrassing pictures she started to panic more than me and
she honestly just made me even more tense I left the room to go to the bathroom to think he was asking for $1,000 worth of Bitcoin but even if I paid that I had no reassurance that this person wouldn't share those pictures or keep my laptop or to God knows whatever or else meant I decided I wouldn't pay the ransom my girlfriend agreed with my decision when I went back to bed of course I was not tired at all anymore neither was my girlfriend we sat up leaning on the headboard of the bed talking thinking
and worrying for a couple hours then there was a knock at the window of our hotel room we both gasped well my girlfriend more so let out a short scream I turned off the lamp so that whoever was out there couldn't see in I also shut the shade completely I didn't bother trying to look out there to see who it was I assured my girlfriend we were safe though she whispered we should call the cops or inform the front desk I told her we would if the problem persisted and then told her to go to
sleep meanwhile I stood in the middle of the room watching over her while also looking back at the window I got a text I looked at my phone and it said I'm looking into your room right now I'm not playing games then there was another knock at the window I decided to just grow a pair for a couple seconds and open the shade to see who was out there I pulled the shade open I couldn't see who it was but there was someone standing on the other side of the glass looking in my girlfriend screamed
I told her Shh as I pulled it back shut we packed our things and went to the front desk telling the lady about the whole situation and requesting another room on one of the upper level floors she said she would alert the authorities and gave us a room card to another room on the third floor for the rest of the night we slept close together well I didn't sleep I was awake all night waiting for a knock at the door morning came and the manager was in so she took a look at the footage for
the previous night and of course some guy with a baseball cap covering 90% of his face went into the lounge as soon as I left it to get coffee then walked out with my laptop there was only one camera that actually caught the man in the act she said she would forward all video footage with that man over to the police we were out of there I blocked the number that was texting me I had to accept a feed but I didn't want to think about it anymore there was nothing I could do about where
those pictures would end up or some random person having my address I cancelled my credit cards and changed my passwords there wasn't much else that cream could do however what really motivated me to share this story with the Internet was the fact that three days ago I got a letter in the mail without a return address it was addressed to me and it was a short straight to-the-point note saying I hope you haven't forgotten I have all of your information still it was a horrible reminder that someone out there with bad intentions has not only
my address but my pictures my phone number and my name I've been sleeping with one eye open these past few nights if anything happens I will update [Music] there was a time a few months ago that my good friend Ashley lost her phone on her best guy friend so she hit me up on her sister's phone when she realized that whoever had her phone was reading her messages but not responding I practically reprimanded her for not having a password on her phone I suggested using Find My iPhone but she didn't even have that enabled for
whatever reason I met up with her and decided to text her number I sent a text saying please return my friend's lost phone within seconds it said the person read my text but they didn't respond so a minute later I sent a more aggressive follow-up text I said we can see that you're reading our messages if you don't respond we will brick the phone track it and it will be useless to you please return it now the person read it right away and said good luck this infuriated me I tried to respond but apparently the
person turned off the phone there wasn't anything we could do now she had Find My iPhone off so we couldn't even report it as lost I tried to make her feel better and took her out for dinner when we got back to her house a light upstairs was on and the garage door was open are your parents home I asked her maybe she said but they weren't supposed to be back from their trip until the next day we went in through the garage door and she pressed the button to close it and we went from
the den to the living room and she called out for her parents one of the doors upstairs shut we could see and hear it the way her house is arranged allows you to see some of the doors upstairs from the living room the door wasn't shut forcefully though who shut quietly and softly Ashley looked at me and I could see fear in her expression I told her wait there I'd go upstairs and check so I went slowly up the stairs down the little walkway got to the door looked down at Ashley one more time then
opened it the room was dark now I looked for the light switch in the room but couldn't find it so I said to Ashley where's the light switch and she screamed oh my god she said that she had her address and the coach of the garage saved on her phone it took me a second to put together what she was implying when just then someone grabbed my arm from inside the room and tried pulling me and I screamed and tugged away from the grip I started to slam the door over and over on the arm
that was pulling at me eventually getting them to let go I heard grunting on the other side I must have done some damage I told Ashley to run as I came down the stairs the front door was only a few feet away so we got out safely he got into my car and I called the cops right away we sat in front of the house in my car the whole time making sure whether to know he left the house or not light upstairs turned on in five seconds later whoever it was walked to the window
and just stood there for a while couldn't tell what he was looking at nor could we see any facial features but I did snap at least 10 pictures to show the police when they were to arrive then the guy just walked away from the window and the light shut off minutes later two cop cars with their lights on came speeding down the road and stopped in front of the house I showed them the pictures before they entered the house and we waited in my car the cops were in there a long time they did a
seriously thorough investigation of the house they came back out to assure us it was safe to go back in we thought for sure they would be able to track the phone now that it was used as part of a crime but to our surprise they said there really wasn't anything they could do without Find My iPhone enabled or the phone actually being on for the matter all they said we could and should do was change the code for the garage lock I had to figure out how to do that for her but still after that
I let Ashley sleep in my house that night when her parents got back the next day she felt a lot safer she got a new phone the next day and we never pursued finding her stolen phone any further [Music] March 8th 2019 on a Friday night me and five of my college buddies had a little night out not anything crazy we just got dinner at some nice restaurant then we hit a dive bar in the same block we got a few drinks played darts and within a couple hours we were out it was until we
left the bar then I realized my pockets were feeling kind of light I checked both of my pockets and realized I didn't have my phone I told my friends to wait as I ran back inside to look for it I checked the seats at the bar at the area by the dartboard I even asked the bartender he hadn't seen it though a couple of my friends came in and I asked one of them to call my number but quickly realizing that was kind of pointless and a loud crowded bar I asked the bartender to please
call my number if my phone were to turn up sadly I knew that was wishful thinking we traced back to the restaurant to check the table we sat at and I asked the staff if they had any missing phones so it was safe to assume my phone was taken by someone at this point but I still remained hopeful that maybe the bar or restaurant would call me the next day that night when I got home I started cleaning myself up getting ready for bed for some reason it took me that long to remember I could
just use that Find My iPhone feature I would have to sign into iCloud on my computer to use it but when I was all signed in and everything that little map came up on the screen I was confused when the phone was showing up as right above my house for a second I felt excited like maybe I had the phone on me the whole time I checked the pockets of the jeans I was wearing but it wasn't there I had no other pockets and I knew 1,000% I had my phone with me at some point
in the restaurant so how could it be at my house maybe someone left it at my front door so I went outside and checked the stoop and the mailbox it wasn't there either either way it was insanely late and I was exhausted as long as it said my phone was currently at my house I figured I'd find it in the morning and figure out what happened so after coming back inside the house I did one last loop around the house turning off all the lights and going upstairs I sleep with the door open because I
live alone at some point before finally climbing into bed I heard a rattle from downstairs it sounded like the pots and pans rack being banged into I tiptoed downstairs I saw that there was a light on down there somewhere the light was leaking ever so slightly into the living room I got to the kitchen and no one was in there but for half a second I could see the light for my sunroom on it turned off just as soon as I noticed it I walked through the kitchen to the glass door that led to the
adjacent sunroom I would have to walk inside of there to turn the light on and there was no way I was about to do that so I just went as close to the door as possible and looked inside I came close to screaming out loud when I could make out two figures standing in the darkness that was my sunroom they were both standing nearly identically the same way arms and legs kind of spaced out from their bodies to give an overall wider appearance to their stature it seemed as though they had their backs to me
as I couldn't see their faces only blackness which I assumed was their hair I ran to grab the kitchen phone to call 9-1-1 I reported a break-in so the operator said there would be police arriving shortly would sneak up to the house find the point of entry for the intruders and I pretend them the operator said the police would call me if they needed to and asked me to hide in a closet and wait there until I heard the police downstairs and she told me to hang up and stay as quiet as possible waiting in
that closet felt like it was taking centuries mostly because of the tension of waiting in silence and motionlessness expecting and dreading hearing any kind of noise and actually I did I heard loud clunking footsteps coming from downstairs they were coming up the stairs they got louder and closer pretty soon they were near to the outside of the bedroom but I never heard the matter of the bedroom I heard doors opening doors to every room upstairs so finally the door to the bedroom I was in opened I balled up as little as possible in the corner
of the closet tucked under a blanket to hide myself the closet door opened and I felt my heart in my throat at this point I did my best not to move even though I felt my life flashing before my eyes the door to the closet shut and I heard footsteps leaving the room then I heard two pairs of footsteps go downstairs I felt it was finally safe to move and breathe after a few minutes of silence the next sounds I heard were the voices of police officers yelling downstairs I jumped off in the closet and
rushed down to them they entered through the sunroom actually apparently the same way the intruders did there were a total of four police officers in my house the two intruders seemed to be gone which was no surprise one of the officers said usually the intruders would be out of the house before the cops arrived so one of them had a notepad in hand and was taking down notes for my description of the whole night they even took down the specific details of my phone and reported it as a lost item to somehow help with the
case after that the cops left but assured me there would be a car patrolling the area all night the next day I found my phone left on the kitchen counter I figured they must have left it to avoid being tracked any further because it was useless to them my two friends joked around that the two intruders were simply trying to return my phone and that I should find them and thank them nothing has happened since but it's hardly been a month so I'm still kind of uneasy about sleeping in this house you
