Abby Connolly
She let him roam freely around one of the houses so he could get a look at everything. At one point, he stopped in the doorway of one of the bedrooms towards the back of the house and called out to her.
He pointed to a corner of the bedroom and asked what was back there. Since she knew the floor plan perfectly, she responded and told him it was a closet. She found it odd that he wouldn’t know what a closet looked like.
He laughed to himself and said, “No, really! Come here. What is this back here?”
He motioned for her to come closer, but something wasn’t right. Why was he pressuring her to look at a room she’s seen so many times?
“In that split second, something shifted,” she said.
“Maybe it was the energy in the air, the hairs on my neck standing straight up, or the way his eyes changed before me. I suddenly sensed the power dynamic had shifted. I did not feel safe.”
Once again, she told him it was a closet before saying she needed to step outside and leave the house.
“I had no concrete reason for why I felt the overwhelming need to leave the house immediately,” she added. “I didn’t understand why my body sensed danger. I just knew I needed to act quickly.”
The man filled out an application and some paperwork to purchase one of their homes. Over the next few weeks, he visited the office unannounced frequently to ‘check on his application status.’
But then, he started calling her co-worker and would ask him when she worked, making her more untrusting of him. Whenever she worked alone in the office, she would lock the door.
Eventually, they received word from their corporate office that the man’s application had been denied.
As it turns out, he didn’t pass their required background check, as he had been convicted of assault multiple times.
