A Bump in the Night | Criminal Podcast | Forensic Files

well let's just start with you introducing yourself uh my name is Amber Don and I live with my family in Berwyn
Illinois I work as a animal trainer at the Shedd Aquarium and that's about it what kind of animals do you train mostly
penguins and otters but I also work with all of our animals in the Marine Mammal
Department what do you train a penguin to do um mostly husbandry care so we practice
going to the vet with them we ask them to be calm in our lap and calm with other people we can teach them to spin
and to follow us train them you know to come to their names you can teach a penguin almost anything
so do you have like Penguin friends ones that you like more than others well I love all of her Penguins but I do have
my favorites I helped hand raise 11 of them so um yeah I mean a penguin chooses you
they choose you to be their person and then every time you come out into exhibit they come
out of the water and run up to you and do their little flirty Behavior I knew I wanted to work with animals
ever since I was a small child so I started working with them eight years ago oh
we're we're here to talk about something that happened longer ago than that um how long ago were you living in that
apartment in Washington 21 years ago long before she worked with penguins amberdon moved to one of the rainiest
places in America the small town of Enumclaw Washington to be closer to her brother and
sister-in-law it was gorgeous I could see Mount Rainier out of my bedroom window of this
apartment like right there it was it was gorgeous she moved into a small apartment
building her apartment was on the top floor a one bedroom with a little dining room a living room and kitchen and a
little balcony on the front she was 20. the first night I moved in you know I had I had been playing music
while I was unpacking and I went to bed that night and I turned off the music and I was laying in
my bed and I heard footsteps in the Attic and they're a very clear footsteps um and I I wasn't quite sure why I would be
hearing that but you know all whenever you move into a new apartment you know you start to notice all the little
different sounds that that particular space makes and so I wasn't quite sure what it was but it sounded like
footsteps had you been told that there was an attic in the apartment or was did you
have an entrance to the attic in your apartment there was a crawl space that it was just
a little push-up I don't even know what you would call it like a it's like a trap door in the
ceiling kind of sort of yeah it was like it would push up into the ceiling so it
was like a a square maybe two and a half by two and a half feet that push up into
the ceiling and that came into my bedroom or it was in my bedroom ceiling so I could see it from my bed
and I thought okay you're you know that's probably not what it is you know you're
you have an act like I know I have an active imagination so I just you know fell asleep anyway but the next
day I went to the landlord and I told them you know I I think I heard footsteps up there last night is there any way
that anybody could be up there and uh she told me no she said it was probably squirrels or raccoon or
something I was like well that squirrels were in a pretty big set of boots then we've all had that feeling that
something isn't quite right and we're very good at talking ourselves down going on with our lives telling
ourselves that it's all in our imagination and most of the time it is I'm Phoebe judge this is Criminal
[Music] oh [Music] I was very meticulous you know everything was very organized I
knew it was in my cupboards and I would buy a six-pack of soda I would drink one maybe take one to work
with me and I would come back and there would be three left and it's like well did I drink two
that's odd or like cans of soup would be missing what did you did what did you think was happening
well I I had moved to Enumclaw to be close to my brother and he lived about three blocks away he
had a key to the apartment I assumed that he was coming into my apartment and eating my food because I that is
something he would do just come over and grab a can of soda or whatever so I I thought it was him did you confront him
yeah I called him I told him you know I can't afford to feed you don't come over
here and eat my food and it it wasn't happening all the time I just would notice it every now and
again Amber wasn't home much she was working several jobs processing papers for an accountant working at the local
drugstore and waitressing at night so when she noticed that little things in her apartment had been moved she'd
second guess herself chalk it up to exhaustion she was starting to feel at home in
Enumclaw she had her two cats and then she got a puppy she she was beautiful German Shepherd mix she was
maybe nine or ten weeks old so really little yeah she's just a baby so she was learning to be potty trained so I would
come home in between my jobs and walk her and I was kenneling her in the bathroom
while she was you know learning her her manners and learning to be potty trained
so I kept her in the bathroom with you know newspaper on the floor and water and toys and stuff one night she was
waitressing when she got a call from her landlord saying that her bathroom was flooding and my downstairs neighbor was
getting rained on in her bathroom so I I came home and we we came in my apartment
and I opened up the bathroom door and my puppy was in the bathroom sink I asked her I was like did you put her
in the sink she's like no we wouldn't open the door because we didn't know how big the dog was we didn't know if it was
people friendly so this is why you had to come here but there's no way she could have gotten
into that sink she was a little puppy and the toilet was you know far enough away from the sink that she wouldn't
have been able to climb was there water all over the ground uh-huh it was a big mess
but the puppy was dry like safe in the sink yeah she was sitting in this foreign
but like someone must have put her in the sink right there's no way she could have yes someone must have put her in
that sink Enumclaw is a tiny safe farming Community nothing ever went on there so anytime Amber got worried she just
reminded herself that her brother and sister-in-law were three blocks away and she kept herself busy
she'd been living in her apartment for about six months when she got sick and called into her jobs
and so on this day for the very first time she didn't leave her apartment at all it was around seven o'clock at night
I was on the couch and I was watching I was watching my stories watching my TV and I heard a loud thump in the bedroom
and I just dismissed it because I have animals and they make noise and I just just missed it and kept on
watching television later on that evening around 11 or so I turned off all the lights
I drew a bath I got undressed and I got into the bathtub and I so I'm in the bathtub I got a
candle lit and I look up and that crawl space door was open and everything just slowed way down
and you're in the bath in the bathtub I'm in the bathroom naked in the bathtub naked in the bathtub in the dark
and I must have sat in that bathtub for 10 to 15 seconds after seeing that crawl
space door open but it felt like five minutes and I put it all together I was like
okay the footsteps the first night the doors being closed when I had left them open the missing food Thea my dog
in the sink there was someone living in my house with me so I very calmly got out of the tub
and got my robe I put it on there was only one place he could have been hiding and that was in the bedroom
closet and I had to walk by the closet in order to get out and the closet where those
mirror doors and that was really scary to see myself you know in the dark knowing that he was
on the other side of that door did you say anything no no if he would have if he would have
opened that door if I would have seen him I would have lost it he's been living in my apartment for six months if
he wanted to hurt me that's not what he wants he just needs a place to stay he's probably not a bad
guy like he put Thea in the sink like he's I don't want to freak him out I don't want to scare him
by screaming and yelling because then he might hurt me so that he doesn't get caught
so I very quietly walked past the closet and I didn't go out the door I went to the phone
and under my phone I had a junk drawer and in the junk drawer there was a hammer so I had the hammer in my hand
claw out so if anybody came at me they're gonna get a face full of hammer claw and I called my sister
this was before most of us had cell phones so Amber had to stay in the apartment and use the landline
she told her sister-in-law that someone was in her house and her sister-in-law told her to get out of there as fast as
she could so I grabbed my puppy and I walked out the door I walked out the door in my robe with a hammer in one
hand and a puppy in the other and I got to the bottom of the stairs and I I was looking at the the apartment
door and I was like please don't come out please don't come out please don't come out because like I said like if I
would have seen him I think I would have lost it um she was there within minutes with her
two giant German shepherds in the back of her car um and we went we went to her house and we called the
police and what did they find out well the police came to the apartment but he was gone
in the Attic the police found a little bit of food a book and a sleeping bag I don't know
how he was getting into the apartment I mean I I left a window open for my cats so he could have gone
in and out that way um I had a spare key he could have taken my spare keys and made a copy too I mean I don't know
he could have lived there before me and maybe the managers didn't change the locks I don't I don't know
she filed a police report and while Amber believes it was a man there's no way to know whoever was living up there
was never found we spoke to Amber's brother Eric Olson and he remembers just how nervous and
scared she was through the whole thing and how relieved she was to get out of there
we also asked if you remembered Amber accusing him of stealing food from her apartment
we said that sounds about right it's been more than 20 years and Amber says she still wishes she could find
this person and asked them what was going on did you stay in the apartment no no my
grandparents came over the next day and we moved out we moved all my stuff out you think that if there was a stranger
in the house like the puppy would have been barking yeah well I got her while I lived there
so as far as she knew that's that's normal you know mom goes to work and then Dad my friend comes yeah my friend
comes down from the attic and hangs out and plays with me so when he came in that night she didn't
bark she was just like oh hey laughs in our next apartment she made the landlord padlock the attic door
it makes me so nervous now because I lose things and things think I've done that like wait a second did I drink that
did I eat and now and I'm like Phoebe no you're fine but now I'm really you've given us all reason to be really worried
like no maybe there is someone in here you know not that I want to make everybody
paranoid but I think you just have to listen to your instincts I think that's what I've learned from this like
deep down I knew what was going on but I didn't trust myself I you know I thought I was just
imagining it but I think it since then I have learned to listen to my instincts and if my instincts are
telling me that something is not right then something's not right so now do you ever do things like
checking the garbage can to count how many Soup cans there are or no I I live I live with a family nothing is ever
where it was placed you know I have no idea how many cans of soup I have in the cupboard
foreign [Music] Spore Nadia Wilson and me audio mix by Rob Byers our intern is matild erfilino
special thanks to Dick Gordon and Carol Jackson Julian Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode of
Criminal you can see them at thisiscriminal.com and if you have a story like Amber Dawn's write to us at
hello at this iscriminal.com we're on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram come say hi tell us what you think the best
thing you can do to help criminal grow is completely free just review us on iTunes or tell a friend to subscribe to
the show thanks very much criminal is recorded in the studios of North Carolina public radio
wunc we're a proud member of radiotopia from PRX a collection of the best podcasts around shows like love and
radio love and radio is a show but morally complicated and completely fascinating situations and people they
let people speak and they don't judge them here's a preview of their brand new season are you worried you're going to
have all sorts of like crazy side effects like later in life you'll grow a third arm or something people would look
at you like I was always kind of inspired by that you know American Psycho routine
I'm a guest in your house I will pee in yourself sorry oh God Stephen I hope you
make me a good documentary I'm so sick of reading it I can't even begin to tell you I'm so upset I could just cry and
all of a sudden the wood on my wood pile started to shake probably dinner with a flower and then
it I wake up with a plastic bag over my head holy go listen radiotopia from PRX is supported by the
night foundation and special thanks to adserc for providing their ad serving platform to radiotopia
I'm Phoebe judge this is Criminal [Music]

Amber Dawn was 20 when she moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Enumclaw, Washington. On her very first night, she began to notice strange sounds. And they didn’t stop.

Music in the episode “Twosome” by Podington Bear “Taking Dark Matter Lightly” by Anamorphic Orchestra “In My Head” by Podington Bear “Action Discovery” by Komiku “Undersea Garden” by Podington Bear “Curious Case” by Blue Dot Sessions

Criminal is a show about people who’ve done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle. Hosted by Phoebe Judge. Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. https://link.chtbl.com/n33u0HsA

Say hello on Twitter (@CriminalShow), Instagram (@criminal_podcast), and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ThisIsCriminal/.

Sign up for our occasional newsletter, The Accomplice https://bit.ly/accomplicenewsletter.

We also make This is Love and Phoebe Reads a Mystery.

Artwork by Julienne Alexander http://www.yssrs.com/.

Check out our online shop https://store.dftba.com/collections/criminal.

Episode transcripts are posted on our website https://thisiscriminal.com/.

Episode 71 originally published 7/21/2017 https://thisiscriminal.com/episode-71-a-bump-in-the-night-7-21-2017

Brief Summary

Amber Don shares her eerie experience of discovering a squatter in her Enumclaw apartment while training animals at Shedd Aquarium.

Key points

The Creepy Crawl Space. Amber hears footsteps in her attic and finds the crawl space door open.
Living with a Secret. Amber discovers someone has been living in her apartment without her knowledge.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

A penguin chooses you to be their person.

Amber describes her bond with penguins.

1:03WatchDec 13, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

More from Criminal | A Podcast About Crime

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.