Last updated: March 26, 2025
For Three Weeks I Thought I Was Losing My Mind. Turns Out My Apartment Was Trying To Kill Me
The Police couldnt solve it but what the fire department found on the wall left me in shock.
Words by
David Regan
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The Note That Started Everything
April 15th. I woke up and found a yellow post-it note on my desk.
Handwriting that wasn't mine.
"Don't forget to pick up dry cleaning. Call mom. Check bank statement."
All things I needed to do.
All things I'd told no one about.
I stared at it for a long time.
I live alone. My apartment has a deadbolt. No one has a key except me and the landlord.
I figured I must have written it in my sleep.
Maybe I was more tired than I thought.
I threw it out and went to work.
Then Another One. Then Another.
April 19th. Another note.
This time on the back of my desk chair.
Same handwriting. Same pen.
"Make sure you save your documents."
My hands started shaking.
I checked the locks. The windows. Everything was secure.
No signs of forced entry. Nothing missing.
But someone had been in my apartment.
I went to Best Buy and bought a webcam.
Set it up aimed at my desk.
Downloaded a security app that would record when it detected movement.
If someone came back, I'd have proof.
April 28th. I woke up and immediately knew something was wrong.
Another post-it note. On my keyboard.
"Our landlord isn't letting me talk to you, but it's important we do."
I ran to my computer. Opened the webcam folder.
Empty.
The files from the last nine days were gone. My recycling bin had been emptied.
I never empty my recycling bin.
Someone had noticed the webcam. Someone had deleted the footage.
I felt sick.
Someone was coming into my apartment while I slept.
I Was Convinced It Was My Landlord
May 1st. I found another post-it note on the outside of my door.
Blank. Nothing written on it.
I looked around. There were blank post-its on other doors in my building too. All different colors.
I knocked on my neighbor's door.
"Did you see who put these here?"
She looked confused.
"Put what where?"
I didn't know what to think anymore.
I went back inside and pulled up the letter my landlord had sent me when I moved in six months ago.
The handwriting was identical to the notes.
My landlord was coming into my apartment. Leaving messages.
But why?
Then Someone On Reddit Said Four Words That Changed Everything
May 5th. I couldn't take it anymore.
I posted about it on Reddit.
Explained everything. The notes. The webcam. The deleted files. The landlord's handwriting.
Most people said I was being paranoid. Some said it was a prank.
One person said: "Get a carbon monoxide detector. This sounds like CO poisoning."
I remember staring at that comment.
Carbon monoxide?
I had a CO detector. Plugged into the wall in my bedroom. Little green light glowing. I'd tested it when I moved in.
But something about that comment made me uneasy.
I called 911.
"I think I might have carbon monoxide in my apartment," I told the dispatcher. "I've been finding notes I don't remember writing. Forgetting things."
The fire department showed up twenty minutes later.
A firefighter walked through my apartment with a handheld meter.
He came back to the living room looking serious.
"You've got 67 PPM in your bedroom," he said. "Around the same in here."
I pointed at my detector. Green light glowing.
"But I have a detector. Why didn't it go off?"
He walked over and checked his meter right next to it.
"67 PPM right here. Your detector is silent."
"Why?"
"Because these cheap ones don't alarm until you hit 70 parts per million. You're at 67. Just below the threshold."
I felt my stomach drop.
"But I was dying."
"I know."
What The Firefighter Said Next I'll Never Forget
He looked at me.
"How long have you been living here?"
"Six months."
He nodded slowly.
"The confusion, the memory problems, the paranoia — that's CO poisoning. At these levels, your brain doesn't work right. You do things and don't remember doing them."
I looked at the post-it notes on my desk.
"I wrote these."
"Most likely. And then forgot. CO exposure does that."
"The webcam files?"
"You probably deleted them and didn't remember."
"The blank post-its on the doors?"
He paused.
"There might not have been any post-its. Or you put them there. CO can cause hallucinations. False memories."
I sat down.
For three weeks I thought I was being stalked.
I thought my landlord was breaking into my apartment.
I was terrified.
It was just carbon monoxide.
"Even if your levels had hit 70," he said, "these things can take up to four hours to make a sound. By that point you're too confused, too sick to respond."
The Part That Made Me Angrier The More I Thought About It
The HVAC company came out that afternoon. Cracked heat exchanger in the furnace.
After they left I went back to Reddit and updated my post.
"I had CO poisoning and thought my landlord was stalking me."
Hundreds of people responded.
Most of them had the same cheap detectors. Green lights glowing.
No idea what their actual levels were.
And that's when I understood the real problem.
The standard those detectors are built to — UL 2034 — says they don't have to alarm until CO hits 70 PPM.
And they have up to four hours to do it.
Four hours.
At 35 PPM your brain starts struggling. Decisions get harder.
Memory gets fuzzy. You blame it on stress or bad sleep.
At 50 PPM the confusion gets worse. You do things and don't remember doing them.
At 67 PPM you write notes to yourself in the night and wake up convinced a stranger wrote them.
And your detector stays completely silent.
It's not broken. It's not old. It doesn't matter if you tested it last month.
That's what it was built to do.
Not to save you. To meet a standard.
Before The HVAC Tech Left I Asked Him One Question
"What detector should I actually get? One that works?"
He didn't hesitate.
"Steadfast Haven," he said. "It's what I use in my own house."
He pulled out his phone and showed me.
It wasn't just a detector with a light.
Digital display on the front. Real-time readings — CO, natural gas, propane. Live numbers, updating constantly.
"Alarms at 10 PPM," he said. "Not 70. Dual sensors. Detects all three.
I wouldn't let my family sleep in a house without one."
I looked at his screen.
CO: 0 PPM. Gas: 0 PPM.
"That's what safe actually looks like," he said. "Not a light. Numbers."
That Night I Threw The Old One In The Trash
I ordered a 4-pack that night.
Threw the old detector in the trash.
When Haven arrived I plugged them in and watched the displays light up.
0 PPM CO. 0 PPM gas.
For the first time in weeks I could think straight.
Real information. Not just a meaningless green light.
I check it every morning now. Four zeros.
That's what safe actually looks like.
Not a green light while your brain slowly fails.
Real data. Real protection.
I Thought I Was Being Stalked. I Was Just Being Poisoned.
I think about those three weeks all the time.
The terror of thinking someone was in my apartment.
The paranoia. The confusion. The fear.
I did everything right. I had a detector. I tested it when I moved in. Green light every time.
I just didn't know my detector was designed to let me get sick before it made a sound.
At 67 PPM it stayed silent.
If I'd had Haven it would have gone off at 10 PPM.
Before the confusion started. Before the notes.
Before three weeks of thinking I was losing my mind.
This Is The One I Use Now
I linked the same detector below.
https://truststeadfast.com/pages/haven-offer-page
If you have one of those detectors with just a green light, you don't know what you're breathing.
You don't know if you're thinking clearly right now.
I thought I was being stalked for three weeks.
I was just being poisoned.
Don't wait until you can't tell what's real.
Check your detectors. If they don't show you real numbers, replace them with something that actually works.
(I linked the one I use down below)
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If you aren’t taking Alpha BRAIN®, you are operating at a disadvantage.
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