Update: On Friday, a probable cause statement identified the woman in this story as 20-year-old Chalese Ruth Andreason. She faces charges of burglary of a dwelling and giving false personal identity to a peace officer.
Chalese Ruth Andreason booking photo
NORTH SALT LAKE, Utah – A Utah man came in from a long night to find an unexpected visitor had made herself at home inside of his apartment.
It’s probably not what you would expect to see when you walk into your own home, a stranger staring back at you.
“I walked straight in and she was standing right here on the counter just looking at me,” said Ryan Spurlock as he opened his apartment door and looked to the island in the kitchen.
“I was looking right at her and a homeless girl was just looking right at me,” he continued.
That was the first thing Spurlock saw when he got back to his North Salt Lake apartment around 4 o’clock on Wednesday morning.
“It felt like a dream, honestly. Even when I laid down, it didn’t feel real,” Spurlock said.
The woman had placed her shoes neatly by the door and made herself at home.
“She went in my fridge, she opened a drink and she drank it, she sat on my couch,” said Spurlock.
“She told me she lives here, I said, ‘No you don’t, this is my place,’” he added.
Spurlock said the woman was even wearing his new clothes, “I noticed the bag was there and she was wearing them too,” he said as he picked up the empty shopping bag from the counter.
Spurlock said the situation was confusing, he wasn’t sure if the woman was homeless, if she lived in the building, if she was on drugs or who she was. He didn’t know what to do, so he offered her some food as he began to question her.
“What are you doing? Where are you from? She wouldn’t tell me her name, she started laughing and I thought she was on drugs,” he said.
After his quick interrogation, Spurlock learned the intruder didn’t come for a beer or the couch… she came for his dogs.
“She came up here for one reason and it was the two dogs, she heard them, and she wanted to come up,” Spurlock said.
The woman did not harm his dogs but came up to pet them, even claiming to Spurlock she was their owner. Then his encounter with the stranger got stranger.
“She asked if she could stay and I told her no you’ve got to leave or I’m going to call the police,” Spurlock said, mentioning he would not call the police so long as he could check her bag to ensure she did not steal anything.
The woman left, however, she didn’t use the front door and Spurlock doesn’t live on the first floor.
“She just climbed right up here, and she just jumped from here down, she started limping off and then she was fine and started running,” he said.
“I called the cops and chased after her on the other side of the gas station,” he said pointing around the corner.
Police caught up with the woman at the gas station, but according to a video Spurlock recorded on his cell phone, they couldn’t get a straight answer either.
“Sit your a-- down,” the officer said as the woman, who was sitting on the curb, tried to get up while he was asking her questions.
“This isn’t a joke. Are you on any drugs right now?” the officer asked, the woman shook her head, ‘no.’
“Are you sure?” he said, and the woman nodded. “What are you doing in this complex?” the officer asked just before the video ended.
Once she was in police custody, Spurlock said the officers found his clothes and another man’s wallet in her possession.
Spurlock does not know how the woman got inside his apartment but said he learned a valuable lesson about making sure the door is locked.
