A Queens couple returned from vacation to find that a complete stranger caught on camera had been handed the keys to their luxury Long Island City apartment and spent part of the night lounging on their couch.
Bill Kim and Yelim Kim, both 28, were on the final night of a trip to Yellowstone National Park on July 24 when their Ring camera sent an alert shortly before 11 p.m. Checking the live feed from their yurt, they watched an unfamiliar woman in a dress and heels walk through their Halo LIC unit on Purves Street, pour herself a drink, sit on the couch, and scroll on her phone, according to NBC New York’s report.
“I was in disbelief. I just could not believe what I was seeing,”
Bill Kim said. The couple immediately called friends in the building and the local precinct. Yelim Kim later recalled the moment as pure panic.
“It was panic, panic, panic.”
The woman eventually noticed the camera, walked over to the bookshelf, and ripped it down, cutting the feed. Friends reached the apartment first. One knocked and confronted her on video:
“I know you don’t live there. Get out of my friend’s apartment.”
She replied “Sorry” and left, only to return minutes later with a set of keys and let herself back in. Police arrived soon after and took her away in an ambulance for evaluation.
Nothing appeared to have been stolen. CBS New York reported the NYPD is investigating the incident as a burglary. The woman has not been publicly identified or charged.
Building management later told residents that an individual claiming to be a dog walker had received a key at the front desk without proper verification, as FOX 5 New York first reported. Goose Property Management, which operates Halo LIC, said the concierge employee involved was permanently removed and that staff were being retrained on identity checks. The Kims said they had never authorized a dog walker or any guest while they were away.
Two days later the same woman returned to the building in the same dress and heels, this time wearing a hospital bracelet. She was turned away at the lobby.
“We were scared,”
Yelim Kim said.
“I just could not believe that she was back here.”
The couple, whose lease was due for renewal in September, say the apartment no longer feels safe. Bill Kim tenses at every hallway noise. Yelim Kim described the experience as a total violation of privacy. They are looking for a new place and have asked to break the lease.
“Safety isn’t a luxury,”
she said.
“It’s just a standard.”
