Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Diana X]

i woke up this morning to A STRANGER STANDING IN MY APARTMENT

i woke up because i heard him trying to open my bedroom door i heard the sound and i saw his hand

he was standing there for a good 5 minutes

heard the sound of my door opening and i was like, "what on earth is that? i must be hearing things" (it's a rolling door so it's a very distinctive sound) then about 3 or 4 minutes later i heard it again

i slowly turned about and saw this fucker's hand reaching around the door & his silhouette thru the glass panes

i screamed at the top of my lungs and he jetted

apparently i left the door unlocked

i told my boss he did not call the police

he tried to tell me it was probably a drunk person cunfused about his house

but he was not drunk he was fucking STEALTH

i never want to go back there again and i certainly do not want to sleep there again

i have some friends i might be able to shack up with on a spotty basis and my boss said i could stay with him

any other advice????????? i am quite shaken up

please learn from my mistake and always always always always lock your doors

[maddog]

[kimchi_pizza]

Good chance someone living in your apartment or near by with a good view your apartment.

Lock your door, add an additional lock or bolt if you want and find a new apartment.

Locks are there for a reason, so I do suggest using it.

And if a hand is reaching through your door, then lower your shoulder and ram into the door as hard as you can. That'll teach'em and leave a mark you may be able to identify later if he's caught.

[twg]

Demand that your boss put you in a new place. Do not take no for an answer. You had a near miss with a rapist.

If you don't want to move/ "cause a problem"/ quit if it came down to it, then get a Korean friend to hire a locksmith and get every last lock on your door replaced, because....

[billybrobby]

hmmm...lock your door, eh? how do i keep up with all these new tips people keep coming up with?

[rothkowitz]

Get a dead-bolt put on and use it.50K or so.

[cosmo]

00

[Dev]

You don't lock your door?
You're just asking for problems, aren't you?

[JongnoGuru]

[eamo]

I've had strangers walk into my apartment 3 times in Korea. For mundane reasons. Drunk or just rude enough to not bother knocking. Don't worry about it. Keep your door locked.

[Dev]

[Demophobe]

[JongnoGuru]

Three times? Not bad, eamo. I'm probably a bit more than double that, which seems fair given our respective Periods of Sojourn™. Two stand out, and while I've posted about them before, I'll do it again. The young-uns usually get a kick out of them.

1. There was the 7-yr-old grandson of my landlady who stuck his 7-yr-old hand through the burglar bars of my bedroom window, upstairs unit w/veranda, as I lay on my bed dozing with the lights & TV on at 1.00 in the morning. What woke me up was my wallet falling on my stomach. I had set the wallet on the windowsill beside my bed. He had cut a hole in the mosquito netting and reached in to grab the wallet. But as he drew hand & wallet back outside, the wallet caught on the burglar bars and slipped from his hand and onto my stomach.

"Wha, huh, who, whaaa?"

I just assumed the wallet had tumbled off the sill by itself... somehow. Groggy, disoriented, late night... Whatever, I had my wallet, all the money. No problem, certainly no idea someone had tried to nick it.

I wake up late the next day, it's a Saturday or Sunday. GF comes round, hours later we're going out for dinner, and I can't find my keys. Anywhere. We spend a good hour hunting to no avail. I have a spare set in a drawer, take those, off we go. Next day money is missing. Not money from my wallet, but money I had set on a desk. Blah blah blah, find out it's the grandson. Before he tried to take the wallet through the window, he had already succeeded in grabbing my house keys that were sitting on it. Without a sound. Well, the TV drown any sound out. And he'd used that key to gain entry when I was at work on Monday.

2. (Different house, different landlords) Midnight or later, I'm in my bed, sleeping, GF is lying next to me. We're naked. I have no idea what caused me to awaken and open my eyes, but I did. Just opened my eyes, didn't get up or turn over. My eyes set upon the door to the living room. I left it open. Weird... For a moment it almost looks as though there's a silhouette of a person, soooo faint in the darkness, standing right in the doorway. And facing us. Of course there isn't. Can't be. .... Uh-oh ... it ... just ...moved!!!!! Yep. There's a man right there. Still feigning sleep, I moved around, cleared my throat, like I was about to wake up, and then I heard him kitty-foot away and out the door, which I heard click closed. How long had he stood there? What was he expecting to see?

Twice before I had walked in on my landlord in my place (he had the key) and both times he had some semi-plausible excuse about gas safety check ("oh, the gas guy just left a minute before you returned" ), or some such. There's no doubt who it was, but of course he denied it. I used the deadbolt till I moved out and stored all valuables in my desk at the office and at a friend's house.

[antoniothegreat]

here is one possibility, which i myself have done maybe half a dozen times when distracted. it could have been someone that lived a floor above or below you, or a line over, and they thought it was their house. yes, he was being stealthy, but if you are a dunk coming home several hours after your wife told you to be home, you would try to be quiet too, because you dont want to wake up the kids or your wife, and you dont want her to get mad.

when i movd apartments, in the same complex, i kept going to the right building but the old floor, a few times i even opened up the door. and noticed how clean the place was (he he he, i am a dirty bastard) and then slammed the door when i realized what i did.

sure, he was in your apartment, but if you drank 5 bottles of soju, you might not notice until you heard screaming too.

but like everyone else said, lock you door, change your locks, and get a deadbolt.

assume the best in people, but be prepared for the worst.

[rothkowitz]

You can get a deadbolt installed within an hour.Go to a locksmith,choose one that fits what you want,he'll come to your house and install it.

When you leave,give the key to your landlord.Keep a spare with a friend.It's up to you whether or not to leave one with your landlord in case of emergency,but certainly not your boss.

It won't take long and the piece of mind isn't all that expensive.

Keep a baseball bat by your bed too.Frypan is just as good.Just piece of mind til you're comfortable.