A college student had a bizarre experience over the weekend.
A University of North Carolina at Greensboro student, identified simply as Maddie, came home to her off-campus apartment Saturday to find a man in her closet who was wearing her clothes.
The college junior told the local Greensboro news station Fox 8 that before making the startling discovery she was convinced that her apartment was haunted by a ghost. She said that items of her clothing, like shirts and pants, have been slowly disappearing since she moved in and that she had found handprints left behind on her bathroom wall.
On Saturday, she finally realized the reason behind these strange occurrences when she heard rattling noises coming from her closet that she originally thought sounded like a raccoon.
Maddie told local news channel WFMY News 2 that she walked up to her closed closet door to investigate and asked if there was anyone inside.
That’s when she got an unsettling response. “And he answers me, and he’s like ‘My name’s Drew,’” she told WFMY.
Maddie said she was in shock and continued to talk to the man, asking him:
“Before I open the door — are you gonna do anything to me? Are you gonna do anything? And he’s like, ‘No, no, no.’”
She said that at that point she attempted to make an emergency call on her Apple watch but it wasn’t working.
“I could feel him starting to push the door open so I was like I guess I have to open the door,” she told WFMY.
When she did finally open the door, she found 30-year-old Andrew Swofford sitting on the floor and wearing her clothes, including socks, shoes and sporting a bookbag filled with even more of her clothing.
Maddie said she contacted her boyfriend and texted him photos of Swofford to let him know what was happening. As she waited for help, she continued talking to Swofford for about 10 minutes, she said, to distract him.
“He tries on my hat. He goes in the bathroom and looks in the mirror and then is like, ‘You’re really pretty, can I give you a hug?’” she told Fox 8. “But he never touched me.”
When Maddie’s boyfriend arrived, Swofford left. WFMY reports that police arrested him at a nearby gas station. Officers took him to Guilford County under a $26,000 bond on 14 felony charges, per Fox 8, including identity theft, larceny and failing to appear in court in connection with earlier cases. Swofford was not violent or threatening, according to Buzzfeed News who spoke to the Greensboro Police Department
Maddie and her roommates told Fox 8 that they always lock their doors and none of their doors appear to have any damage, adding they’re baffled as to how Swofford broke in.
This is also not the first time a stranger has broken into their apartment.
Her building’s management told Fox 8 they changed the locks at Maddie’s apartment in December after she and a roommate discovered two men they did not know in their living room.
After her experience with Swofford, Maddie seems to have had enough.
“I’m leaving tonight,” she told WFMY. “Yeah, just signed a lease for a new apartment.”