Woman spots stranger in her New York apartment on home camera after ‘staff hand out spare keys’

A woman claims she is “traumatised” after spotting a stranger in her New York apartment while she was away on holiday through an indoor camera.

Yelim Kim shared the footage from 24th July on Instagram over the weekend, which appears to show a random woman walking through her kitchen and into the living room before lying down on the sofa as if she lives there. She then spots the camera, reaches up and disconnects it.

“POV: Your ‘luxury’ NYC apartment handed your spare keys to a stranger whilst you were out of town,” she alleged in the caption of the video, which has gone viral and had millions of views.

Credit: @yamkimmm/TikTok

In a second post, the woman claimed that a friend went round to confront the stranger, and she shared footage of the alleged interaction. He bangs on the door and says: “Hey, who the f**k are you? Get out of my friend’s apartment. Get out of there. I know you don’t live there. Get out of my friend’s apartment. Get out of the fu**ing apartment.”

After he bangs on the door again, she finally opens it and says “sorry” before saying she’s a “patient”. The woman eventually walks out of the apartment and leaves.

Credit: @yamkimmm/TikTok

“We called the police (108 precinct in Queens) and they told us they cannot arrest her because she’s mentally unstable. They dropped her off at a hospital instead. We asked to press charges, and to file a police report, and the officers refused,” Yelim claimed in the caption.

The woman then “showed up in our building again in the same dress and heels” two days later, on 26th July, she alleged. “Doorman stopped her and told her she can’t go further than the lobby. She eventually left and we called police again but they didn’t show up until eight hours later at 2.30am.”

Yelim told The Tab she was away with her partner Bill in Yellowstone at the time and had been out of town for around a week.

“We got a notification for a motion section at 10.51 and 10.54. I opened up the camera app at 10.55 and saw the intruder,” she recalled. “When we initially called the police they asked us if this was a prank call. And when they eventually showed up, they didn’t make a report of what happened.”

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Credit: @yamkimmm/TikTok

“When the police came, they escorted her out of our apartment and questioned her a little bit, then escorted her to an ambulance to be taken to a hospital. She was never arrested, and they did not initially file a report. We called 911 again on 26th July, when we saw the intruder in our building lobby. Police came eight hours later and also refused to file a report.”

On 9th August, Yelim claims that the police apologised, filed a report and opened an investigation into the incident.

The couple also shared screenshots of an alleged email complaint to the management company on Instagram, in which they wrote: “We had someone break into our apartment using spare keys that were handed to her by the staff. She was on the premises for over an hour, apparently with keys to multiple units, not just ours.” Yelim claims they didn’t respond to them for nine days.

Credit: @yamkimmm/TikTok

In an email to another concerned tenant in the building who witnessed the incident obtained by The Tab, the management company said: “To follow up on Friday’s incident, it appears that the doorman mistakenly released a resident’s guest the wrong key. This led her to try opening several doors, though she was unsuccessful. We take this matter very seriously.

“The employee involved has been terminated, and we are currently retraining all staff on ID verification protocols to ensure this never happens again. Your safety and security are of our utmost importance, and we won’t rest until the matter is fully resolved.”

The Tab has reached out to the management company for comment.

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Featured image credit: @yamkimmm/Instagram