Sorry for the formatting, I'm on mobile and this is one of my first posts. Also, sorry if the story is a little long.
Let's start with some background information. This took place about two years ago when I was 16. At the time I was living with my older cousin (who owned his own two-story house) because my parents were out of the country for two months. My cousin worked (and still does work) at Universal Studios, so he was barely ever home and I would usually wake up and find myself alone.
In the second week in July between my sophomore and junior year in high school I woke up on my own as my cousin had already left for work. It was around 10:30am when I woke up because I had a tiring week hanging out with friends so I was exhausted and slept in. For some context I usually wake up around 7:30 so waking up at 10:30 is considered late for me. When I woke up I got out of bed and went downstairs to get some breakfast. I made myself a bowl of cereal (I think it was Kix) and some oatmeal. After I ate I had to use the restroom which happened to be by the garage door.
When I walked to the restroom door I noticed that the garage door leading into the house wasn't locked, so when I went to lock it I also noticed that it wasn't shut all the way. This was somewhat alarming to me because my cousin and I NEVER went into the garage. The reason we didn't go into the garage was because the large garage door was broken and we couldn't open it to keep his car in there, so there was no point in going in there.
Then I got paranoid and started thinking about different reasons why the door might be unlocked and cracked open. I went back to my kitchen (on the other side of the house) and then I remembered that I kept hearing noises late that night. They were normal noises such as a fridge opening and a pantry door closing, so I thought that it must have been my cousin getting a late night snack before going back to bed. For the next 15 minutes or so I stopped worrying about it. Then I went back to the fridge to get more food because I was still hungry. When I opened the fridge I realized that the chips and dip that my cousin made for a family party that was coming up in the next few days was missing. Why would my cousin eat the food that he was saving for the family party?
I began to get paranoid again. Then I heard a noise in the garage of something falling off a shelf. It wasn't very loud but it caught my attention so I went to the pantry to get a large knife from the wooden knife holder just as a precaution. When I did so, I saw that a few knives were missing. Immediately I ran upstairs and locked myself in my room. I quietly called the cops and told them that I think there's someone in my house with weapons. They arrived about ten minutes after I called them all the while I was scared to death in my room and trying not to make any noises.
When they arrived they searched the garage and found a man in his 40s or 50s with two knives and a small pistol. My cousin rushed home once I called him and told him everything that happened. Apparently the man robbed a shoe store with a gun the day before, and the police didn't catch him. He somehow snuck into the garage without me or my cousin noticing. The man was arrested, and the next few nights I wasn't able to sleep because I was too frightened. To make sure this never happened again my cousin bought me a dog (her name is Lucky) as an early birthday gift (my birthday is at the end of July).
When my parents returned home about a month later i moved out of my cousins house. Ever since then I was afraid of being alone at night, but at least I now have Lucky to keep me safe from any harm.
Posted by u/Im_ _Colbyyy