SAN ANTONIO — Two former residents of the The Reserve Apartments are speaking out after learning police responded to a man breaking into a woman's apartment on Sunday.
In a San Antonio Police Department report, officers said they responded to a call of a Burglary in Progress around 5 a.m. Sunday at The Reserve Apartments off Babcock Road near the campus of the University of Texas at San Antonio.
The complex houses university students and other tenants.
The woman, identified as Jane Doe in the police report, told the officer she woke up to a man lying in her bed.
According to the report, the woman said she started screaming and banging on the wall trying to get help from her roommate.
The woman said the man tried to cover her mouth and grabbed her arm, but she was able to fight him off.
When the roommate came into the room, the woman told police the man jumped out the window and got away.
After KENS 5 reported the story on Tuesday, we received messages from other women saying they had a similar experiences while living in the complex. We have chosen to keep their identities private for this report.
The first woman who contacted us is 19 years old. She broke her lease in early April after an unknown man broke into her bedroom through a window overnight the month before. She said the window was locked.
"There is a man standing outside my window with his hand on my windowsill. And he picked up my blinds, and he was just staring at me in my sleep. And I like, I jumped out of bed. I asked him who he was, and he just looked at me dead in the face. And he started cussing at me," said the woman.
The woman said she grabbed her dog to scare the man off, and by the time her dog was on the bed, he vanished.
She ran into her bathroom, locked the door and call the police. SAPD confirmed a report was taken that night.
However, it wasn't until the next day the woman realized she had a video on her phone.
"I had got home at around 11:30 that night. [The unknown man] was watching me change. He has videos of me changing in my room. When he got into my room [later that night] he took my phone off the charger. He took it to my patio, and he was taking pictures of himself. Then he came back to my window and recorded the video that he had of me on his phone, onto my phone. And I didn't find these pictures until the next morning when I got to work," she said.
She said the encounter was so scary she told apartment managers she was relocating.
"I told them, 'Hey there is man out here. He's doing this to girls and y'all need to do something about this,'" she said.
The woman lived in building 12, which we learned was the same unit where a similar incident happened 13 months earlier with another female tenant.
Both women said the building is located at the back of the complex and has no street lighting around the building.
The second woman wasn't home at the time but said her bedroom window was broken into in February 2021.
"Everything had been moved around my dresser, the drawer had been placed on my bed and the window had been forced open," said the woman.
She filed a report with SAPD, who again, confirmed a report was taken that night. However, the second woman said that didn't stop someone from reappearing outside her apartment window again... and again.
"The frequency I would have someone outside my window increased and I would tell the apartment complex management," she said.
She felt like not enough was done and broke her lease in August 2021.
"To hear other girls suffering much worse than I did makes me worried."
By Wednesday evening, SAPD said the incident on Sunday remains actively under investigation. At this time, police do not believe the February 2021 incident is related to the March 2022 incident or Sunday's incident.
Property management company Asset Living didn't provide an official statement before air but did share the following letter sent to The Reserve residents:
UTSA Chief Communications Officer Joe Izbrand provided this statement:
"UTSA Police Department is conducting periodic patrols of The Reserve in response to this recent situation. We have also reached out to SAPD to ask for their support in increasing visibility at the complex."
Chief of Staff for Councilman Manny Pelaez provided this statement:
“Councilman Pelaez is very alarmed about the recent incidents at The Reserve Apartments. He asks that anyone out there who has information that would help the police should call SAPD. If anyone has reason to believe that they are at risk, the first thing they should do is call SAPD, but also talk to the apartment management to point out areas of improvement. Our office will be reaching out to the apartment complex to discuss these incidents as well. This is an ongoing investigation and SAPD can’t share any details but the Councilman will continue to consult with SAPD as the investigation unfolds.”