An intruder broke into my house last week. This was the first time this has occurred at Iona.

The first night of school my friends and I noticed that some of our windows weren’t locking.

We emailed residential life and told them we needed a work order put in. They said they needed to know the specific windows before they could put in the order, and they would have a look when they came for inspections.

Inspections clearly did not come soon enough, because later that week, a man broke in through the window.

The night of the break-in, my house mates were in bed when we heard noises on our porch and felt something was wrong. We locked ourselves in a room upstairs and called campus security.

We then heard an extremely loud noise that sounded like it may have come from downstairs and called security again, who were at our door in an impressive time of under a minute.

We went downstairs to let security inside. When they walked in, one security officer looked into our living room and said we shouldn’t have left the window open.

I knew then that someone was in our house, because we had shut the windows before bed.

As soon as this clicked into my head, I told the officers.

At this time, I looked up and saw a man I have never seen before standing in our kitchen, as if he thought he belonged there. I yelled that there was somebody in the kitchen, and my friends and I ran outside.

I saw security sit him down and question him about trespassing. He said that he was with a girl, who told him that this was her house, and they came in through the side door.

We informed security that he was lying, because our side door does not open. They left us inside and took him outside to check the door. Thankfully nobody else was found in the house.

When the New Rochelle Police came shortly after, they arrested him immediately and informed us that this was not a case of trespassing, but breaking and entering, a serious crime.

Security informed us that the intruder was intoxicated and confused and although this may somewhat explain his actions, I did not care. The fact of the matter was the house was broken into. I didn’t care why.

The New Rochelle Police took a look at the windows and realized that they do lock, but they are a different design than we are used to and we just needed to be shown how to work them.

The day after the break-in, members of the office responded quickly and efficiently.

They showed us how to use the windows and, at our request, installed alarms and screwed in the upper windows to prevent them from falling.

They informed us that security would be keeping an extra eye on the house, and that if we wanted anyone to come over and keep an eye out, let them know.

I extremely appreciate their response, and I feel 100 percent safe now.

I am grateful nobody was hurt, the intruder did not get away and that no property was damaged. Even though things could have been a lot worse, it was still one of the most alarming experiences I have been through.

People are taught to be safe from a young age. We are constantly reminded to never take a chance when it comes to our safety.

Unfortunately for most of us, we do not take this advice as seriously when nothing has jeopardized our safety firsthand.

I have heard many stories of other people’s experiences and never imagined that it could happen to me.

But ever since seeing a stranger standing in my kitchen and the screen out of my living room window, I have experienced a huge wake-up-call.

When I ran out of the house after seeing the intruder, I had two things on my mind.

First, I never knew a human being could shake so hard, and second, I couldn’t believe this happened to me.

Second, of all the houses in the world, this intruder broke into mine.

If I could give advice to other students it would be to never assume that bad things can’t happen to you. I am not suggesting to live in fear, but only to take precautions.

Don’t leave your windows or doors opened or unlocked, even for a night. If they are broken, fix them immediately. If something ever sounds or feels wrong something probably is wrong.

Don’t hesitate and don’t assume that it is all in your head. Call the police immediately, and protect yourself.

I keep looking back on that night and thinking about what would have happened if my friends and I had ignored the noise outside.

I don’t know the intruder’s intentions, I only know that he wasn’t concerned about respecting our home.

If we had ignored our gut feeling and determined the noise was nothing to be concerned about, he could have done a lot more damage than just breaking and entering.

Be careful, stay safe and remember: it can happen to you.

To contact the Ionian’s Claire Maurer, e-mail her at [email protected]