BOSTON — A Boston woman believes her loud screams and a personal defense alarm on her keychain helped scare an intruder away.
It’s a story you’ll see only on Boston 25 News.
Hannah Roth was working from home on Mass Ave in Boston’s South End on Tuesday around 9:45 a.m.
That’s when she heard a loud boom coming from her back patio.
She said a stranger kicked in a locked gate and was moving quickly toward her apartment.
“With everything I could, I started yelling and screaming, making myself bigger to be like, get out! Get out!,” Roth told Boston 25 News. “He started to stumble. I don’t think he expected to see anyone at home.”
Roth said her boyfriend left the apartment earlier in the morning.
She questions if the man had been watching for a moment of opportunity.
“It could’ve been someone who consistently sees my boyfriend leave at the same time and thought this would be a good time to take their chance,” she said.
Roth said the man also entered the garage on the backside of her apartment that faces the Hurley School.
She darted outside to chase after him and reached for her Birdie personal defense alarm that’s attached to her keychain.
“It makes a really high-pitched noise, and I thought that would solidify, don’t come back here,” she said.
She believes the siren got the message across to the man who ran away.
“I was afraid waking up the next day at 9:45 that something similar would happen again,” she recalled.
Roth thinks she saw the same man on Wednesday near Chester Park, steps away from her apartment.
She captured cell phone video to share with the Boston Police, who are investigating.
“That definitely freaked me out more, seeing that this is a person who frequents the neighborhood,” she added. “Could it happen again? Could it happen to another neighbor?”
Roth is feeling unsettled after the two encounters in a period of just over 24 hours.
She purchased her personal defense alarm five years ago, but said Tuesday is the first time she’s used it.
She’s since used it again this week to scare off someone who was looking into her neighbors’ cars.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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