Chloe was convinced that someone was secretly living in the loft above her apartment.
Mom Taking Antipsychotics Over Fears of Stranger Living In Her Loft Makes Shocking Discovery
Picture this: you believe somebody – a complete stranger – is secretly living in the loft above your apartment ceiling. Despite raising alarms consistently, your friends and neighbors tell you off, and put you on anti-psychotic medication instead. Until one day, your worst phrogging fears come true.
This is exactly what happened to Chloe, a resident of Kent, U.K., nearly a decade ago.
According to LBC, Chloe resided in a new-build block in Gravesend, Kent, along with her then two-year-old daughter. The building she lived in had a loft that spanned across all the flats on the top floor. The 31-year-old mom noticed one day that the latch on her ceiling, which allowed access to the loft, was left open.
Despite finding it strange, she did not really “think anything of it.” However, later that day, she recalled thinking, “There’s someone there, they are looking at me,” the media outlet reports.
Chloe’s Friend and Neighbor Dismissed Her Suspicion
Recounting her experience on TikTok, Chloe said that she rang up one of her friends who lived in a flat below hers in the same building. The friend reassured her that no one was secretly living in the loft. But, Chloe said, she continued to hear footsteps.
She also shared the incident with her next-door neighbor to check if he had heard anything. But she recalled that he said he had not heard anything and further claimed it was not true. Speaking to LBC about her experience, she said that when she called everyone, they dismissed her suspicions and told her it was just in her head.
“No one would believe me,” she told the media outlet. “But I don’t blame the people in my life then,” she added. Chloe revealed that she was known to have mental health struggles at the time and that she suffered from anxiety and PTSD. She explained that she is a “different person now,” before adding that she also had a condition that made her hear about things related to different environments, such as swimming pools and clubs.
Chloe Gets Put on Anti-Psychotic Medication
Chloe recalled the time she suspected someone was secretly living in her apartment attic.
But Chloe remained convinced that someone was living above her, and the thought scared her so much that she did not want to go home. When her situation worsened, her friends started thinking that she was either “hallucinating or having a psychotic episode,” she told LBC.
“I started thinking in my head, maybe it’s not true, maybe I do need to see a doctor. When I saw the doctor, I told them ‘I think someone’s in the loft and that there are people coming in and out of my house. I truly believed it,” Chloe shared.
She was then put on Quetiapine, a “second-generation anti-psychotic” that is used to treat mental health conditions like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe depression. She shared that taking the medication made her feel like a “zombie” and like she was “not a real person.”
The Truth Finally Comes Out
However, after about two months on the medication, one day, Chloe noticed that a man “blatantly” opened the latch right in front of her eyes. “He was staring at me, and I ran downstairs to my friend, screaming for help. I was shouting ‘He’s in my flat, he’s coming. She was like ‘Calm down, but I’d had enough, I’d seen him. I’m on anti psychotics, and I’m still seeing it. If it was in my head, then why am I still seeing it?” Chloe recalled.
She then called the police. When officers checked the loft, they found a man living there, with bags and backpacks stored inside. “At the time, I was just happy that I was right. I was very smug,” she said.
Did Chloe’s Next-Door Neighbor Gaslight Her?
In a shocking turn of events, it turned out that Chloe’s next-door neighbor knew about the man living in the loft all along and that it was his homeless friend, and he had been helping him.
A spokesperson from Moat Housing told LBC, “The safety of our customers is very important to us, as it was at the time of the incident nine years ago. Thanks to reports from customers living in the building, we were able to work with the police to investigate the incident, leading to an arrest. We secured the loft space shortly afterwards, and have had no further reports of phrogging.”
Meanwhile, Chloe still lives in Gravesend, albeit in a different home. When asked whether her friends apologized to her for not believing her, she said they now laugh about it.