NEW ORLEANS — It is the basis of every horror story, finding out while you're sleeping someone is inside your house. Well that happened to Stephen LaDow from Algiers.
Imagine taking a nap, and waking up to a knock at your door, an officer telling you to be quiet as they believe two suspects are inside your own home.
LaDow telling Eyewitness News, “The dog was barking and I thought he was barking at the mailman.”
He went on to say, “I noticed there was a shadow through the shades… I saw him lingering and nothing was coming through, so I go to the front door and open it and at that point there was a police officer right in front of me and probably 10 more behind him and all across and he just goes “sshhh lock your door” so I did.”
LaDow has a hearing impairment. Wednesday afternoon he had no idea two suspects were creeping in.
“When I sleep in my chair, I take out my hearing aids and I can’t hear anything at all," he said. “Its always been my biggest fear of living alone and being profoundly deaf, its absolutely terrifying.”
Officers swarmed his street and told him the suspects were inside his house, and were hiding inside his costume closet.
“They brought out one suspect and then a couple minutes later they brought out another suspect," he said.
Neighbors say there were nearly 10 officers in the street. They were told to stay inside and lock the door.
LaDow doesn’t know the suspects but believes they came through the back door, which he keeps unlocked during the day.
“For the first time ever, I felt scared because I was deaf.”
New Orleans Police would only say they arrested, 20-year-old Jaheem Johnson and a 17-year-old. Both were booked with one count of unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling. LaDow says he doesn’t know how officers knew they were here.
24-hours after the crime, he’s simply trying to regain that feeling of safety inside his own home.
“This morning the test was getting back to some sort of normalcy and taking my hearing aids out to take a shower, that made me nervous," he said.