In a downstairs room, have the bedroom window that faces the street open most of the time at night since I like it cold, there's a cabinet with a 60L aquarium on top in front of it anyway, and have the guard dog (A sweet spaniel- but she'll bark and growl at any disturbance just as well as a mastiff would), Pixie, sleeping on the bed next to me, so I've never been that worried about it.
After tonight, I won't be able to do it again.
It started at maybe 3:30, 4am sometime. I was awake. Since I care for my parents, I often have disrupted sleep patterns and I'm awake at odd hours. I was reading a book and heard Pixie growl, low and deep. Then she jumped off the bed and began pacing a bit, looking up at the window, before jumping up at the cabinet by the window, barking. I shouted "hey! We're calling the police, dog is here" and went to look out of the curtains to the side. I didn't see anything. I pulled the curtains closed again, and made sure to pull the right curtain over, then drew the left side curtain, the one that covers the open part of the window, all the way over, covering the right side curtain too, tucking it down so the wind wouldn't be able to move it.
I wasn't too alarmed then. It's a fairly quiet residential street, but there are foxes around that we sometimes hear, and occasionally someone passing by or the neighbour's gate next door will make Pixie growl or bark. But she doesn't usually react that way. She'll usually growl, but stay on the bed, and her reaction was much stronger than normal. I thought that even if it was someone scoping out the open window to potentially burgle, they'd seen now that the room was occupied by a person and dog, and would go find an easier target. But mainly I figured it was just a noise she'd heard outside. I was wrong.
It was a good half hour or so later, after I'd relaxed and thought I might doze off soon, that I heard her growl again. A really serious, deep and low growl, and I listened; again, thinking it might be foxes or something. But I heard what sounded like deep, horror movie breathing noises. Like the heavy breathing sounds a pervert makes down the phone to his stalking victim in a film. I looked up at the window and my heart stopped. The curtain had been pulled back, and lifted at the bottom, like someone peeking under it, and could still hear the heavy breathing. I shouted "Hey!!" again and moved from the bed to the side of the window, so I could see past the curtain, and saw the figure of a man move away from the window to the right, towards the front door and the exit of the front garden, so while I knew he wasn't at or under the window, I reached and pulled it shut, grabbed my phone and called 999.
One thing that creeps me out, in hindsight, is that it would have taken a few seconds for me to move from the bed to the side of the window. After I'd shouted and he knew he'd been seen. But he must have stayed there even knowing I'd seen him, until I moved the curtain and could see out, then he moved away. The heavy breathing also had to be deliberate, it was so loud. Like someone trying to frighten me.
While on the phone with police, I went around the ground floor of the house turning lights on, making sure the rest of the house was still secure, and it was. Very careful to lock doors and all the other windows at night. Two patrol officers came shortly before 5am and took the report. They suggested asking the neighbours if they have camera footage and to let them know of a potential prowler in the area tomorrow, and they went to drive around the area, saying that they'd be wanting to know what someone was doing wandering around at 5am (the time the police arrived) anyway. Since the dark meant I only saw the shape of a person, no real description, I doubt they can do much. I couldn't even be 100% certain it was a man, but the breathing and the figure I saw instantly made me think male, and height would have been average, 5'8 -5'10.
I'm still shaken, but feeling angry and violated, and wishing we had a camera system now. Will be looking into that. I never thought anything like that would happen. Don't have any enemies, no recent exes, no one I know of harbouring any grudges - since I'm caring for my folks full time now, I'm not out socialising or making any enemies! Nor are my elderly and disabled parents. I'm nearing 40 and living in jeans or joggers and T-shirts, no make-up or fussing with hair most of the time, so not a likely target for a peeping tom pervert.
If it wasn't for the fact that it was my dog who alerted me to something both times, I'd wonder whether I was half asleep and dreamed it. That I'd imagined it. I have had hallucinations once as the result of a bad reaction to meds, but that was more than 10 years ago now, and hasn't happened since, and I learned how to test my reality in times I was worried about whether something really happened or not from a psychologist, when I asked how I could ever trust my own senses again after that reaction to the meds. They said then, to see if other people can see or hear the thing too, or if it's a noise/voice outside, can I see someone? If so, it's not likely to be a hallucination if both aural and visual perceptions match up. The dog sensed someone there first, and I heard and then saw someone. I wasn't dreaming or imagining it, I don't use drugs and almost never drink, am scientifically minded and don't believe in ghosts, and while I love a good horror film, I'm rarely freaked out by them anymore, too old and cynical.
I have to think it was someone who was looking to burgle a house... but for the fact that they came back so much later. Maybe someone on drugs, or having a mental health episode. Or, and this one bothers me most.. someone who wanted to scare me. But why? Who? They know where we live, are they going to come back? New fears keep popping into my mind, like I sometimes let the dog outside into the back garden at night if I'm up and about, she'll pop out for a quick pee. There's a small side gate to go from the front to the back of the house where someone could easily wait near the back door, completely hidden from view. They were bold enough to stay by the window even after I'd shouted, even after they knew a person and a dog were there the first time. What's to stop them coming back? I'm freaked out.
