Flyer: Intruder watches people as they sleep, neighborhood wants action

An Idaho Falls neighborhood woke up to a bizarre flyer with a bold warning: An intruder is on the loose, and he likes to watch people while they sleep.

It may sound like a prank, but the account of a man in a woman’s bedroom was far from funny at the Sand Creek apartment complex in Idaho Falls.

Brandi Robinson froze when she read the flier on her front door.

“I was pretty freaked out,” she said. “I ran up and handed it to my mom.”

The heart of her mother, Kimberly Messler, skipped a beat, too. She wondered if it was a joke.

“I don’t know what to believe half the time. but this? Just the big letters: ‘WARNING REWARD,’ pretty much freaked me out,” said Messler.

The flyer is from a woman named Trisha. It says there is a reward for information about a black male, 5’8″, mid 20s with short hair. Then comes the scary part. The flyer says, “I woke up to this man in my house at the end of my bed watching me sleep.”

“I’m not trying to be mean or anything, but I just thought, ‘Is she trying to find an ex-boyfriend, or is she mad at a guy?'” said Messler.

We tracked Trisha down, and she says no way.

“We’re just trying to make our neighbors aware because a lot of them aresingle ladies with children,” she said.

Her full name is Trisha Hardy. The story on the flyer happened to her sister.

“He came right into her house just because her door was unlocked,” Hardy said. She said the man has been roaming the neighborhood for months, peeking into windows. “Now he’s going into people’s houses. That’s a scary thought.”

About a dozen neighbors approached our crew after our newscast on Wednesday. Many told similar stories of a man matching Hardy’s description entering their homes in the area.

One man said the intruder had exposed himself to the man’s wife. Another said he had exposed his genitals to her 15-year-old daughter. She said it had been happening on and off for nearly 8 months, and told our crew she had filed police reports. The reports have not yet been confirmed by our station.

The Idaho Falls Police Department confirmed it is investigating the case. We are told police have a person of interest, but it is an ongoing investigation — not much comfort for the folks here.

Hardy said she is honestly just trying to make folks aware and protect her neighbors.

If you have any information that might help police, you can call Crimestoppers at (208) 522-1983.