A Queens couple says they no longer feel safe inside their own home after discovering a complete stranger sitting inside their luxury apartment while they were away on vacation, and what disturbed them most was not how the woman got past security, but how easily she was allegedly let in.
FOX 5 New York reporter Kelly Kennedy said Bill and Yelim Kim, who live at Halo LIC in Long Island City, were alerted to the intrusion by a security camera on July 24 and watched in disbelief as a woman they did not know made herself comfortable inside their apartment. According to the couple, building management later told them the woman had posed as a dog walker and was given their keys by a concierge employee without proper verification.
The NYPD is investigating the incident as a burglary, and police had not identified or charged the woman at the time of Kennedy’s report.
A Security Alert Revealed Someone Inside
The Kims were away on vacation when their camera sent an alert showing movement inside the apartment shortly before 11 p.m.
Bill Kim said the couple could barely process what they were seeing.
“I was in disbelief,” he told Kennedy. “I just could not believe what I was seeing.”
The surveillance video, which FOX 5 blurred because the woman had not been identified or charged, showed her inside the apartment and sitting on the couple’s couch.
Without the camera, the Kims said they might never have known anyone had entered.
“We can’t help but wonder, what would she have done if we didn’t catch her on camera?” Bill said. “Would she have just stayed? This was almost 11 p.m. at night. Would she have slept in our bed?”
That uncertainty appears to be what has stayed with the couple most. A break-in is disturbing enough, but learning that someone may have entered without forcing a door or window can make the normal security systems of a building feel almost meaningless.
Management Said She Posed As A Dog Walker
Yelim Kim told Kennedy that building management said the stranger had presented herself as a dog walker and was handed the apartment keys by an employee at Halo LIC.
Emails obtained by FOX 5 supported the couple’s claim that the woman had been given access under that explanation.
The Kims said they had never authorized a dog walker to enter while they were away.
“Not while we weren’t here,” Yelim said when Kennedy asked whether they had ever used one under those circumstances.
“We’ve never had an authorized guest,” Bill added.
That detail raises a straightforward security question: if a person can obtain keys to a resident’s apartment merely by claiming to have a reason to enter, then the concierge desk can become the weakest point in an otherwise secured building.
Luxury buildings often market themselves in part on controlled access and on-site staff, so residents reasonably expect that anyone requesting keys will be verified before being allowed into a private home.
A Friend Confronted The Woman Before Police Arrived
Once the couple realized someone was inside, they contacted both police and a friend who lived nearby.
The friend arrived first and confronted the woman inside the apartment.
“I know you don’t live there,” he can be heard saying in footage included in Kennedy’s report. “Get out of my friend’s apartment.”
The woman apologized and eventually left.
NYPD officers responded to Purves Street shortly before 11 p.m. and found that someone had entered the apartment without permission, Kennedy reported.
Police also documented damage to a bookshelf, which the Kims said occurred when the woman pulled down the security camera.
That apparent attempt to remove the camera added another troubling element, because it suggests the woman knew she was being recorded and acted to stop it.
Police Are Treating The Case As A Burglary
Kennedy said the NYPD is investigating the incident as a burglary, although no arrest had been made at the time of the report.
The woman seen in the footage had not been publicly identified or charged.
The couple also claimed she returned to the building two days later.
This time, however, she was not allowed beyond the lobby.
The return is especially unsettling because it suggests the first visit may not have been a simple case of confusion or someone accidentally being directed to the wrong unit.
Even so, because the investigation remains open and the woman has not been charged, the reasons for her presence and her intentions remain unresolved.
Concierge Employee Was Removed From The Property
Goose Property Management, the company managing the building, sent the Kims an email explaining that the concierge employee involved had been permanently removed from the property.
“As an immediate action, the concierge employee involved in the incident has been permanently removed from the property,” the company wrote.
Management also said it had reviewed procedures with the concierge service and made security improvements following the incident.
FOX 5 said it had contacted Goose Property Management for additional comment but had not received a response by the time the story aired.
Those steps may help prevent a similar mistake, but they do not undo the loss of trust that can follow when residents discover that a building employee allegedly handed their apartment keys to a stranger.
For people paying to live in a staffed building, the expectation is not simply that someone will be sitting at the desk, but that the desk itself functions as a meaningful security barrier.
The Couple Says Their Sense Of Safety Is Gone
Yelim told Kennedy that the incident has deeply affected how she feels inside the apartment.
“I’m freaking traumatized,” she said. “I don’t know how else to describe it.”
The discomfort became even more apparent while FOX 5 was interviewing the couple at home, when someone associated with the building knocked on the apartment door and told Kennedy’s crew they had been instructed to leave.
Bill pushed back, saying they were his guests and he had the right to have them there.
The exchange became tense when the employee said management had “higher jurisdiction” to tell people to leave, while Bill responded that he believed the demand was improper.
The timing made the encounter particularly awkward. The couple was speaking publicly about concerns that building staff had failed to protect their apartment, only to have another dispute with management unfold during the interview itself.
A Luxury Building’s Biggest Security Failure Was Human
The Kims’ experience shows how even an expensive building with controlled access, staff and surveillance can fail if basic verification procedures break down.
The stranger did not allegedly defeat a lock or force her way through a secured entrance; according to the couple and management emails obtained by FOX 5, she was handed the keys.
That is what makes the incident so unsettling, because the failure was not technological but procedural.
The NYPD investigation is still ongoing, and no one has been arrested, so there are still unanswered questions about why the woman entered the apartment and what she intended to do there.
For Bill and Yelim Kim, however, the immediate consequence is already clear. Their home no longer feels as private or secure as it did before, and rebuilding that sense of safety may be much harder than replacing a lock or updating a concierge policy.
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, John developed a love for the great outdoors early on. With years of experience as a wilderness guide, he’s navigated rugged terrains and unpredictable weather patterns. John is also an avid hunter and fisherman who believes in sustainable living. His focus on practical survival skills, from building shelters to purifying water, reflects his passion for preparedness. When he’s not out in the wild, you can find him sharing his knowledge through writing, hoping to inspire others to embrace self-reliance.
