'There's something very strange going on in my house. It has me a bit stumped.' UPDATED

"There's something going on in my house that has me a bit stumped."

I don't know if this problem is an RBI problem, so if this fits somewhere else that you know of, please tell me. For the past couple of days, I've had this issue. I'm pretty sure someone is in my house, but I can't exactly prove how. And yes, I called the police this morning. They don't seem to know either. But I'll get to that in the next couple of paragraphs.

I'm 24F, if that'll help in explaining my predicament. I live alone. I keep a tidy house. More so than most people. My bedroom can be a bit disorganized at times, but the rest of my house is well organized, which is why I was able to detect something was off.

I came home from work a couple of nights ago and found a bottle of Scotch sitting on my stove. It was my scotch. That's not the mystery. I use it for cooking. it sits near the stove. Never on it. And I don't remember the last time I had hands on it.

I was able to convince myself that I had maybe moved it while cleaning the counter and subconsciously put it there and hadn't realized that I did. I'm still not even against believing that, but I'm making a point.

The second thing I noticed, which I know wasn't a fluke on my part, was an energy drink sitting in my fridge. I like to drink the grape NOS, but I like to drink them warm, and I'll leave them out for an hour or two to let them warm up. I never put them in the fridge. But while I was running errands, I get back and find this thing sitting in my fridge, which I just wouldn't do.

It was the very early morning hours, about 2AM give or take, and I can hear footsteps inside of my house. They weren't on the floor though. More specifically, they were on the ceiling. I have a metal roof, and the sound of something hitting that is very different from the sounds I was hearing. These definitely sounded like they were coming from the attic. Also, I don't have an attic.

I called the police. They were not very much help. Wasn't much they could really do. They looked around my house for entries. Nothing seemed to stick out. I did this myself, but I felt a second set of eyes could hopefully point me to something that I didn't see. But as I stated, they weren't much help. Not trying to take jabs at the police, but it is what it is.

I worked the day shift today. When I got back home, I found a few of my ceiling tiles on the ground. This was alarming. It was like someone had stepped through my ceiling. I have no clue what to do. I had my neighbor from next door come over to help me find a place someone could have gotten in.

My windows are always locked. There is one place on the outside of the house that is theoretically able to be accessed and entered through. But it would require a ladder and a screwdriver to get through, and I just don't see how someone could access that without raising alarms from the neighbors.

Any and all advice and recommendations are welcome. And because I know people will suggest this, cameras are already ordered.

Edit: Thank you for everyone responding. I feel the need to clear a couple of things up that seem to be confusing people. First, I was in a jumpy state of mind when I initially wrote this and I'm realizing that I wasn't clear in explaining some things. I've addressed it in many of the comments, but I'll address it here to hopefully be more informative.

The "I don't have an attic" comment was a poor choice of words. I mean that there doesn't appear to be any way up there that anyone has been able to find from within the house. There is obviously a way up there, albeit a challenging one. There's definitely space for movement on the upper portion of the house.

Second, the NOS. I completely take responsibility for this one. I did absolutely zero to clarify what I meant. The flavor of NOS that I like isn't sold commercially in packs from the grocery store. I have to buy them cold from the cooler at the gas station and then let them sit out to warm up. I understand that my initial explanation was a bit confusing and I'm sorry about that.

Also, I called my older brother and asked if he would come and check out my place with me just so I can have an unbiased set of eyes on the property to see if a conclusion can be reached. People expressed concern that I was staying in the house and I very much appreciate not only these users, but everyone who offered advice. I'll be staying with my brother and sister in law until the matter is resolved.

This is what people had to say to OP:

Call_Me_Egg said:

Sharing this story since you mention you rent:

A friend of mine from years ago kept feeling like something was going on with her food. Things like being sure she hadn’t opened something yet and finding it open, cases of soda seeming to move on their own, and food being nearly gone when she thought she had a serving left. Turned out one of the maintenance people her landlord hired was letting himself in and having snacks during her work day.

Reachforthesky777 said:

Do you know what phrogging is?

You need to get those cameras set up the moment they arrive. Do not mention the word "camera" in your house, just get them, set them up in places that aren't obvious, and immediately dispose of the packaging. Most cameras will have little blue LEDs. Plan to cover those blue LEDs as they will stick out like a sore thumb in the dark.

While waiting for the cameras, call a friend when you're out of the house and arrange to stay with them. The first evening you have the cameras set up, get on the phone and call that friend and loudly talk about how your flight is in a few hours and you have to leave in a moment and how you'll be gone for a week.

Then leave. Spend several days at that friend's house with your new cameras and wait for motion alerts. The moment you see someone, call 911 and report burglars in your house.

schrodingers_popoki said:

Do you rent, or own? If you rent, I'd consider the possibility of the landlord or a previous tenant. If you own the house, this screams that you have a phrogger. There's a nonzero chance it's the neighbor, but I don't have enough info about the neighbor.

Regardless, document everything, keep reporting things to the police, communicate what's happening to friends/loved ones; you want documentation and a paper trail regardless of the cause. I'm sorry this is happening to you.

And OP responded:

I don't own the property. I rent. But I had the locks changed when I moved in. The landlord doesn't have my current set of keys. Nobody does. And as for my neighbor, I mean, it is a possibility. In theory at least. I don't personally think so, but I'm not at the stage where I'm willing to rule anything out. He's a pretty big guy that moves slowly. He doesn't really scream "stealth".

This does sound like phrogging. My issue with it is not knowing how someone is getting into the house. I'm not trying to make this sound like a creepypasta. I'm just not able to figure out the exact factor that I'm missing.

The next day, OP shared this update:

Culprit found. Not what I was expecting, but a handful of commenters were right

First, a big thank you is in order. You were all very helpful in your suggestions and quite a few of the commenters were correct.

If it wasn't for the insistence of the comments, I would have assumed I was still doing things correctly and may be dead sooner rather than later.

I called my older brother and asked him to come check out my house with me and see if there was something in the house that I was missing.

He was able to get a look at the entry point at the top of the house. The screws weren't turnable and he eventually abandoned the attempt to open it. There was a very unlikely chance that anyone was using this to get inside. But the scarier part is coming right now.

Carbon monoxide was a big thing recommended as the culprit in my original post from the comments section. I informed most users that I have not one, but two carbon monoxide detectors in my home. I was very convinced that wasn't the reason behind it.

But my brother had decided to check my fuse box, which is located on the outside of my house. One of the fuses was turned off. It just so happened to be the fuse that was powering the outlets being used for the carbon monoxide detectors in my house.

He said with the recent freeze, it was possible that the fuse had frozen and then switched off gradually once the ice had thawed during the day. I don't know about all of that, but it sounds plausible enough.

Finally, once the fuse was turned back on, he recalibrated my carbon monoxide detectors (I admittedly don't know how to do this) and there were higher than normal levels of carbon monoxide detected in the house.

With the heat running and without proper ventilation, I seem to have been doing these strange things in an altered state of mind, or just downright hallucinating. As for my ceiling tiles on the floor, I don't know. But it was near a closet, and when I looked at an old picture I had taken inside of the house when I was first trying to rent the property, I noticed a picture of the tiles hanging loosely from the base.

it must have been one of those things that my brain defrags as irrelevant information and never fully noticed it. The falling was seemingly just a natural occurrence and my brain conjured up further paranoia to fuel my delusion of an intruder.

So, that's it. Mystery solved. Thank you everyone for your helpful suggestions and concern for my well being. It did not go unnoticed by me, and I apologize for wasting the community's time. I'm also going to get checked out tomorrow. I feel fine and I've been breathing natural air for a few hours now, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. Sending everyone really big hugs of gratitude❤️