Holly Raffson, Yahoo Lifestyle - 5 hours ago
Denver CO - A male student who attends State University in Denver was terrified by what he
thought was a ghost haunting his off-campus apartment. The faux-poltergeist, however, turned out
to be a man living in his closet — from where he helped himself to the student’s clothes, food, and
left strange bondage-related items all over the apartment.
“We’ve had food go missing, and some of my clothes disappeared. Like socks and underwear,” Ryan
Mott, a sophomore, told Fox 31. Mott and his roommate also found small nooses made of rope,
bandanas with their centers tied in knots, and handprints on the bathroom wall and mirror. “My
roommate, Devin, collects action figures, and I found a couple of them in my bed the other night,
all tied up and gagged with little pieces of duct tape,” Mott said. “There’ve been nights I felt like
someone was standing in my room, watching me. One time, I felt someone tickle my bare feet.”
On Saturday night, the roommates learned the terrifying truth of these strange occurrences.
“I’d just come back from a party, and as I climbed into bed, I heard a rattling in my closet. It
sounded like a raccoon in there,” Mott said. “It woke up Devin in the other room, and he opened
my door right as this creepy vampire-looking guy comes rushing out of the closet with rope in his
hands all set to tie me up.”
The two roommates managed to subdue their attacker. After using the rope to tie up the man, they
learned his identity. The man, identified as 28-year-old Amond Swofford, had been living in a crawl
space in back of Mott’s closet for the better part of a week.
“He had all our missing stuff in there — my socks and underwear were, well, I don’t even want to say
what he did with them. Plus, there was a walkie-talkie and ropes and rolls of duct tape and rags — and
these pictures he made of me all tied up and gagged,” Mott said. “I think he wanted to kidnap me and
keep me in that crawl space with him, where no one would find me.”
Other than revealing his name, Swofford was silent through the ordeal leading up to the arrival of the
police. But he did say one final thing as he was zip-tied and taken away.
"He said 'Pretty College Boys Have to Pay’. That creeped us both the f out,” Mott told Fox 31
The students don’t know how the man gained entrance to the residence. They always kept their doors
locked, and did not notice any damage.
Police are not commenting on the discovery of the walkie-talkie and whether Swofford might have had
an accomplice in the attempted attack on the student.
The property management company, University Park Communities, issued a statement that they will be
looking into details to find out how this happened. However, the roommates are planning to leave their
apartment after the incident.
“Last night, I didn’t feel safe [so] I slept with Devin in his bed,” Mott said. “But I couldn’t sleep — and
not just because Devin snores like a train. I can’t stay here. My closet, that hole back there, it stinks.
Every time I go in [my room], there’s a bad vibe. I just have to get out.”
State University and its surrounding neighborhoods have had a history of disturbing incidents over the past
several years, most recently represented by the still-unsolved disappearance of graduate Alex Hayes.
Swofford was jailed in Denver County under a $125,000 bond. He faces 14 felony charges, including menacing,
theft, and attempted kidnapping.
This is a developing story.
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