A woman wants to know why strangers are knocking on her door in the middle of the night. We’re protecting her identity and where she lives.
“The first time it happened, my dog was barking and woke me up. It was 3:30 in the morning,” she said. “I looked out and I saw a light, so I go up to my window and look out, and here’s a person trying to get in my house.
“They had their phone open and their hand on the door. It was a very big, tall man with a huge backpack on, and I asked him ‘what are you doing?’ and he said, ‘well, I’m looking for somebody.’ He wouldn’t give me his name. He got in his car that was in my driveway and took off.”
She thought it was an isolated incident, but it happened again.
“My neighbor texted me and said there is a man here looking for your address. This is 10:30 at night on a Sunday,” she said.
She says this time they called the police, who spoke to the man. She says the man told police he thought he was meeting someone from a dating app and was told to go to that address.
The app allows people to create a profile, share pictures, and message. It also gives users the general idea of where other users are located. If you want to meet in person, the user can give an address. In this case, it appears the app is being misused.
“What we ended up finding out through [police] investigation is that someone is targeting someone in the area, but they have my address on there, so I have men showing up on my porch all hours of the night, plus kind of harassing the other neighbors looking for my address,” she said.
She says six different people have shown up at her home, in a rural area, over the last six to eight weeks.
“No laws are being broken, so [police] can’t do anything until something happens. It is a scary thing,” she said.
She has posted signs in her yard warning the property is under surveillance and trespassers will be prosecuted.
“I think the ‘surveillance’ and ‘prosecuted’ will hopefully keep them away,” she said.
When contacted, the dating app suggested the woman take a snapshot of the account using her address, or ask someone with an account to take a picture for her and report it.
“That doesn’t help me,” she said.
State police are investigating.
The app has not been named since this issue is not unique to the particular app.