Dec. 5, 2025
The Apartment Ghost (GT Mini)
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A ghost-like intruder invades North Carolina in 2019.
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WEBVTT
00:00.031 --> 00:01.278
[SPEAKER_00]: a ghostly rental.
00:02.083 --> 00:02.848
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Jason Horton.
00:03.129 --> 00:03.874
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Rebecca Leib.
00:04.316 --> 00:05.805
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is Ghost Town.
00:20.500 --> 00:35.758
[SPEAKER_00]: When college student Maddie and her best friend signed a lease at the Summit at the Edge Apartments, just steps away from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, she figured her experience would be that of a typical college student, with studying friends, parties, socializing, etc.
00:36.430 --> 00:44.363
[SPEAKER_00]: But what she didn't realize was that her time at summer at the edge would not be fun, but terrifying and traumatic.
00:45.164 --> 00:51.034
[SPEAKER_00]: Culminating in a reality, her roommate would call the apartment ghost.
00:51.054 --> 01:00.008
[SPEAKER_00]: Maddie, who via my research, is identified by a first name only in the press, was a junior at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro back in 2019.
00:59.988 --> 01:04.821
[SPEAKER_00]: when she noticed something strange, hand prints appearing on her bathroom walls.
01:05.784 --> 01:08.872
[SPEAKER_00]: Then items of her clothing went missing without explanation.
01:09.514 --> 01:15.330
[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, I've been having like pieces of clothing missing, like shirts and pants that
01:15.310 --> 01:30.231
[SPEAKER_00]: Confused Maddie and her roommate began to believe that their apartment at 1212 Oakland Avenue had some kind of ghost and apartment ghost her roommate teased, though again the reality would be much more concerning.
01:31.662 --> 01:37.631
[SPEAKER_00]: It bears mentioning that Maddie and her roommate also had problems of the non-ghost kind shortly after moving in.
01:38.553 --> 01:47.226
[SPEAKER_00]: On December 19, 2018, the women recalled two men broke into their apartment, and Maddie and her friend had just found them loitering in her living room.
01:48.007 --> 01:51.713
[SPEAKER_00]: Maddie alerted the leasing office, concerned of course for her safety.
01:51.693 --> 02:00.671
[SPEAKER_00]: An employee at the summit at the edge confirmed that the leasing office had followed standard protocol at the time that they got the complaint by just changing the locks.
02:01.232 --> 02:04.639
[SPEAKER_00]: But no police report was filed and no follow-up was done.
02:05.800 --> 02:13.794
[SPEAKER_00]: and still perhaps with the naivety or lack of resources or a kind of positivity collegiate students often have.
02:14.175 --> 02:14.556
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
02:15.317 --> 02:17.200
[SPEAKER_00]: The roommates stayed in the apartment.
02:18.462 --> 02:27.218
[SPEAKER_00]: Until early February 2018, Maddie was seeing hand prints missing clothes, and then she began hearing noises.
02:27.603 --> 02:35.400
[SPEAKER_00]: Finally, Maddie's hold the press that she came home during a lunch break on February 2nd and heard something very definitively coming from her closet.
02:36.382 --> 02:37.705
[SPEAKER_00]: So, she said something.
02:38.206 --> 02:39.148
[SPEAKER_00]: I just hear rattling.
02:39.469 --> 02:42.556
[SPEAKER_00]: It sounded like a wreck who in my closet she told Fox eight news.
02:43.678 --> 02:45.342
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, who's there?
02:46.520 --> 02:48.964
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, someone answered her question.
02:50.247 --> 02:53.753
[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, my name is Drew, a voice from the closet replied.
02:54.414 --> 03:00.145
[SPEAKER_00]: As Maddie placed her hand on the closet door, she said, quote, I could feel him starting to push the door open.
03:00.786 --> 03:03.010
[SPEAKER_00]: So I was like, I guess I have to open the door.
03:04.192 --> 03:04.673
[SPEAKER_00]: Maddie did.
03:04.974 --> 03:05.875
[SPEAKER_00]: She opened the door.
03:06.757 --> 03:08.460
[SPEAKER_00]: And inside, she found.
03:09.098 --> 03:09.519
[SPEAKER_00]: a man.
03:10.640 --> 03:13.505
[SPEAKER_00]: Tall, lanky, with greasy hair and vacant eyes.
03:14.426 --> 03:17.011
[SPEAKER_00]: Not only that, he had raided Maddie's closet.
03:17.712 --> 03:22.960
[SPEAKER_00]: She said to Fox 8, quote, I open the door and he's in there, wearing all of my clothes.
03:23.721 --> 03:28.609
[SPEAKER_00]: My socks, my shoes, and he has a book bag full of my clothes.
03:28.589 --> 03:32.913
[SPEAKER_00]: She said he begged her not to call the police and for about 10 minutes the two talked.
03:33.494 --> 03:38.539
[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, he was telling me everything about his life and basically how he got into my closet Maddie would say.
03:38.559 --> 03:48.228
[SPEAKER_00]: All the while Maddie was texting with her boyfriend, who was on his way to her apartment after a friend to call from her Apple Watch to 911 did not go through.
03:48.268 --> 03:58.478
[SPEAKER_00]: As Maddie, commonly as she could, waited for her boyfriend with Drew, she talked to him to keep him distracted.
03:58.458 --> 04:05.618
[SPEAKER_00]: The man drew leaves the closet, keeps trying on Medi's clothes, and even solicits contact with a college student.
04:06.320 --> 04:07.945
[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, he tries on my hat.
04:08.346 --> 04:11.615
[SPEAKER_00]: He goes into the bathroom and he looks in the mirror, and he's like, you're really pretty.
04:11.675 --> 04:13.480
[SPEAKER_00]: Can I give you a hug, she recalled?
04:13.460 --> 04:17.809
[SPEAKER_00]: Then she asked a freight of the answer, are you going to do anything to me?
04:18.591 --> 04:19.814
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you going to do anything?
04:20.796 --> 04:22.199
[SPEAKER_00]: Which she adamantly said, no.
04:23.301 --> 04:26.969
[SPEAKER_00]: And Maddie, in a follow-up interview, agreed that he never touched her.
04:27.550 --> 04:28.853
[SPEAKER_00]: Thankfully.
04:28.833 --> 04:38.946
[SPEAKER_00]: The man left as soon as Maddie's boyfriend arrived, but with their help authorities identified the man in the closet, the so-called apartment ghost, as 30-year-old Andrew Swafford.
04:39.647 --> 04:43.732
[SPEAKER_00]: Responding officers arrested Swafford and charged him with misdemeanor breaking and entering.
04:44.273 --> 04:51.702
[SPEAKER_00]: However, Swafford was additionally charged with 14 felony counts, including the aforementioned breaking and entering, and was found guilty.
04:52.677 --> 05:00.324
[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody figured out quite how Swaffer got in, and he was avoidant about the question, and the doors and windows of the apartment were completely locked.
05:00.985 --> 05:10.753
[SPEAKER_00]: As you might imagine, the terrifying reality of Swaffer's existence, living inside of their apartment, inside of Maddie's closet, did not sit well with the co-eds.
05:11.854 --> 05:13.296
[SPEAKER_00]: And Maddie and roommate had enough.
05:13.776 --> 05:16.379
[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, last night I did not feel safe, she said.
05:16.399 --> 05:21.283
[SPEAKER_00]: I slept with my roommate in her bed.
05:21.263 --> 05:23.586
[SPEAKER_00]: Every time I go into my room, there's a bad vibe.
05:23.606 --> 05:25.188
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just ready to leave.
05:26.530 --> 05:35.683
[SPEAKER_00]: Maddie did eventually leave as did her roommate, but the anxiety around renting any new place with a course a closet or two would be the stuff of nightmares.
05:36.344 --> 05:45.617
[SPEAKER_00]: So this evening, you might want to check your doors, your windows, and of course your closets to make sure you don't encounter your own apartment ghost.
00:00.031 --> 00:01.278
[SPEAKER_00]: a ghostly rental.
00:02.083 --> 00:02.848
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Jason Horton.
00:03.129 --> 00:03.874
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Rebecca Leib.
00:04.316 --> 00:05.805
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is Ghost Town.
00:20.500 --> 00:35.758
[SPEAKER_00]: When college student Maddie and her best friend signed a lease at the Summit at the Edge Apartments, just steps away from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, she figured her experience would be that of a typical college student, with studying friends, parties, socializing, etc.
00:36.430 --> 00:44.363
[SPEAKER_00]: But what she didn't realize was that her time at summer at the edge would not be fun, but terrifying and traumatic.
00:45.164 --> 00:51.034
[SPEAKER_00]: Culminating in a reality, her roommate would call the apartment ghost.
00:51.054 --> 01:00.008
[SPEAKER_00]: Maddie, who via my research, is identified by a first name only in the press, was a junior at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro back in 2019.
00:59.988 --> 01:04.821
[SPEAKER_00]: when she noticed something strange, hand prints appearing on her bathroom walls.
01:05.784 --> 01:08.872
[SPEAKER_00]: Then items of her clothing went missing without explanation.
01:09.514 --> 01:15.330
[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, I've been having like pieces of clothing missing, like shirts and pants that
01:15.310 --> 01:30.231
[SPEAKER_00]: Confused Maddie and her roommate began to believe that their apartment at 1212 Oakland Avenue had some kind of ghost and apartment ghost her roommate teased, though again the reality would be much more concerning.
01:31.662 --> 01:37.631
[SPEAKER_00]: It bears mentioning that Maddie and her roommate also had problems of the non-ghost kind shortly after moving in.
01:38.553 --> 01:47.226
[SPEAKER_00]: On December 19, 2018, the women recalled two men broke into their apartment, and Maddie and her friend had just found them loitering in her living room.
01:48.007 --> 01:51.713
[SPEAKER_00]: Maddie alerted the leasing office, concerned of course for her safety.
01:51.693 --> 02:00.671
[SPEAKER_00]: An employee at the summit at the edge confirmed that the leasing office had followed standard protocol at the time that they got the complaint by just changing the locks.
02:01.232 --> 02:04.639
[SPEAKER_00]: But no police report was filed and no follow-up was done.
02:05.800 --> 02:13.794
[SPEAKER_00]: and still perhaps with the naivety or lack of resources or a kind of positivity collegiate students often have.
02:14.175 --> 02:14.556
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
02:15.317 --> 02:17.200
[SPEAKER_00]: The roommates stayed in the apartment.
02:18.462 --> 02:27.218
[SPEAKER_00]: Until early February 2018, Maddie was seeing hand prints missing clothes, and then she began hearing noises.
02:27.603 --> 02:35.400
[SPEAKER_00]: Finally, Maddie's hold the press that she came home during a lunch break on February 2nd and heard something very definitively coming from her closet.
02:36.382 --> 02:37.705
[SPEAKER_00]: So, she said something.
02:38.206 --> 02:39.148
[SPEAKER_00]: I just hear rattling.
02:39.469 --> 02:42.556
[SPEAKER_00]: It sounded like a wreck who in my closet she told Fox eight news.
02:43.678 --> 02:45.342
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, who's there?
02:46.520 --> 02:48.964
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, someone answered her question.
02:50.247 --> 02:53.753
[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, my name is Drew, a voice from the closet replied.
02:54.414 --> 03:00.145
[SPEAKER_00]: As Maddie placed her hand on the closet door, she said, quote, I could feel him starting to push the door open.
03:00.786 --> 03:03.010
[SPEAKER_00]: So I was like, I guess I have to open the door.
03:04.192 --> 03:04.673
[SPEAKER_00]: Maddie did.
03:04.974 --> 03:05.875
[SPEAKER_00]: She opened the door.
03:06.757 --> 03:08.460
[SPEAKER_00]: And inside, she found.
03:09.098 --> 03:09.519
[SPEAKER_00]: a man.
03:10.640 --> 03:13.505
[SPEAKER_00]: Tall, lanky, with greasy hair and vacant eyes.
03:14.426 --> 03:17.011
[SPEAKER_00]: Not only that, he had raided Maddie's closet.
03:17.712 --> 03:22.960
[SPEAKER_00]: She said to Fox 8, quote, I open the door and he's in there, wearing all of my clothes.
03:23.721 --> 03:28.609
[SPEAKER_00]: My socks, my shoes, and he has a book bag full of my clothes.
03:28.589 --> 03:32.913
[SPEAKER_00]: She said he begged her not to call the police and for about 10 minutes the two talked.
03:33.494 --> 03:38.539
[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, he was telling me everything about his life and basically how he got into my closet Maddie would say.
03:38.559 --> 03:48.228
[SPEAKER_00]: All the while Maddie was texting with her boyfriend, who was on his way to her apartment after a friend to call from her Apple Watch to 911 did not go through.
03:48.268 --> 03:58.478
[SPEAKER_00]: As Maddie, commonly as she could, waited for her boyfriend with Drew, she talked to him to keep him distracted.
03:58.458 --> 04:05.618
[SPEAKER_00]: The man drew leaves the closet, keeps trying on Medi's clothes, and even solicits contact with a college student.
04:06.320 --> 04:07.945
[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, he tries on my hat.
04:08.346 --> 04:11.615
[SPEAKER_00]: He goes into the bathroom and he looks in the mirror, and he's like, you're really pretty.
04:11.675 --> 04:13.480
[SPEAKER_00]: Can I give you a hug, she recalled?
04:13.460 --> 04:17.809
[SPEAKER_00]: Then she asked a freight of the answer, are you going to do anything to me?
04:18.591 --> 04:19.814
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you going to do anything?
04:20.796 --> 04:22.199
[SPEAKER_00]: Which she adamantly said, no.
04:23.301 --> 04:26.969
[SPEAKER_00]: And Maddie, in a follow-up interview, agreed that he never touched her.
04:27.550 --> 04:28.853
[SPEAKER_00]: Thankfully.
04:28.833 --> 04:38.946
[SPEAKER_00]: The man left as soon as Maddie's boyfriend arrived, but with their help authorities identified the man in the closet, the so-called apartment ghost, as 30-year-old Andrew Swafford.
04:39.647 --> 04:43.732
[SPEAKER_00]: Responding officers arrested Swafford and charged him with misdemeanor breaking and entering.
04:44.273 --> 04:51.702
[SPEAKER_00]: However, Swafford was additionally charged with 14 felony counts, including the aforementioned breaking and entering, and was found guilty.
04:52.677 --> 05:00.324
[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody figured out quite how Swaffer got in, and he was avoidant about the question, and the doors and windows of the apartment were completely locked.
05:00.985 --> 05:10.753
[SPEAKER_00]: As you might imagine, the terrifying reality of Swaffer's existence, living inside of their apartment, inside of Maddie's closet, did not sit well with the co-eds.
05:11.854 --> 05:13.296
[SPEAKER_00]: And Maddie and roommate had enough.
05:13.776 --> 05:16.379
[SPEAKER_00]: Quote, last night I did not feel safe, she said.
05:16.399 --> 05:21.283
[SPEAKER_00]: I slept with my roommate in her bed.
05:21.263 --> 05:23.586
[SPEAKER_00]: Every time I go into my room, there's a bad vibe.
05:23.606 --> 05:25.188
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just ready to leave.
05:26.530 --> 05:35.683
[SPEAKER_00]: Maddie did eventually leave as did her roommate, but the anxiety around renting any new place with a course a closet or two would be the stuff of nightmares.
05:36.344 --> 05:45.617
[SPEAKER_00]: So this evening, you might want to check your doors, your windows, and of course your closets to make sure you don't encounter your own apartment ghost.
