From an early age, I was taught to be aware of my surroundings and leery of strangers. As a result, I tend to be fairly observant and constantly evaluating the environment to strategically avoid any potential threats.
Thus when approaching the locked entrance to our rented apartment in Krakow, my first inclination was to keep walking when we saw a man attempting to aggressively enter our apartment complex without a key. Kevin was in the lead at the time and proceeded to open the door to the complex before I could steer him in a different direction.
In the lobby there was a bank with an ATM. Thus many people who were not residents could enter from the street. However, the door to the apartments was locked and required a key-fob to enter. I noticed the man attempting to access this secured door and as we entered the building, he moved towards the ATM that was located nearby.
Kevin used the key fob to unlock the door and allowed me to enter. As soon as Kevin stepped through the door, the strange gentleman grabbed the open door and made his way through as well. Uh oh. Had we just allowed someone to sneak in? We started to make our way towards the stairs and I immediately stopped in my tracks. The man also was making his way towards the stairs which seemed very odd considering there was an elevator. We rarely see anyone choose the stairs when there is an elevator available. I was definitely not going to let this guy follow us up the stairs and then potentially to our apartment.
He gave us a glare as he passed by us. He then started to run up the stairs grunting. He almost appeared to be drunk. This was all so odd to me. After hearing him go up multiple flights of stairs, Kevin and I proceeded quickly up the stairs to our apartment on the second floor. I was very concerned about this strange man that we had just let in the building.
All of the lights in the building were motion censored so the hall lights would go dark after a few minutes of inactivity. With this knowledge, we continued to peer through the peep-hole of our door to monitor the situation. We heard the man come to our floor at one point and I even saw him through the peep hole aimlessly wandering the hallway. I continued to peer out every few minutes waiting for the lights to turn off. After a while when they did not go off we assumed the man was just pacing around the hall and keeping the lights on. So, Kevin and I decided to drop the landlord an email about the situation and ask if there is someone we should notify about the stranger. The landlord responded that it was probably not a big deal.
Ultimately, we do not know what happened with the strange man. He wasn’t in the hallway in the morning and he may have been a harmless drunk guy looking for a place to sleep. However, Kevin is now a little more diligent when opening doors to ensure that we do not unintentionally allow any other strangers into locked apartment buildings!
