For victims of a crime intended to be invisible, evidence like this person-sized hole in my garage ceiling is rare.

Trust your intuition: There is wisdom in the old adage, especially when you can’t trust the evidence. They call our targeting “the invisible crime” because it was designed to leave no evidence that would be apparent to anyone but the victims, so that any appeal for help only serves to further marginalize us and we are labeled “paranoid” or “a nuisance”.

We’ve learned this lesson the hard way, reporting headscratching crimes to skeptical officers of the law, who grow more and more hostile with every call about a burglary, in which nothing of significant monetary value was stolen, vandalism, for which there is no known suspect or technology gone maliciously haywire.

The evidence binder, which I started last November, before I understood the nature of my adversary, dumped out and mixed up by the offenders.

Lately, I have been hearing footsteps in my attic but I heard online that these people can artificially create those types of sounds, plus someone creeping around in my attic, during the day, while I am sitting at my computer seems unlikely, by conventional logic.

The offenders often sabotage my family vehicles and recently, my gas guage was disabled, so that there is no longer any indication of fuel level, other than the mileage on the odometer. However, they’ve been siphoning my gas so that I never know how much further I can travel before I run out of gas. I ordered the part to fix it, which was sitting on my desk at home yesterday, when I once again, ran out. I called my mom to come rescue me.

As I entered my garage to get the gas can I had forgotten to put back in my car after filling up the lawnmower, I found a large portion of the garage ceiling, scattered about the floor and a human-sized hole where it had been when I left.

Another view of the hole in my ceiling. Notice the knee impressions in the insulation.

I found my computer turned on and unlocked. From looking at my Process Monitor log, I could see that, at 14:48, registry entries were added/modified, though the changes were dated 9/1/1949, 12/31/1919 and 7/16/2037 (which makes them easy to find, at least). Feces had been smeared on my comforter and all of my drawers were open but once again, nothing was taken. Had it not been for the gaping hole in my ceiling, it would have been another seamless and invisible entry, which the police would have written off entirely, had I called them (since this kind of thing happens daily, I would not have bothered).

Poop smeared on bedspread and the pillow I was sewing, by request of Spunelli, from Reddit

I left the house only minutes before my registry was accessed and my alarm system was never disarmed, which suggests they were likely already in the house when I departed.

Next time I hear footsteps in my attic, I will not be so quick to dismiss it. The documented hole in my ceiling may even entitle me to 1 or 2 calls to law enforcement! They may even stop coming in that way altogether, as they did when I caught some leaving my parents’ property, using trails which are now overgrown and apparently untraversed.

The moral of the story, once again, is to trust your senses and intuition. You may be paranoid but not all paranoia is unfounded. I’m not sure what further advice to give to targets without a hole in their roof, since the cops would likely be dismissive, but do with that what you will. Unless you’re armed and trained to handle a team of military-trained home invaders, I think the best advice is probably to get out of the house.