Staff Writer 

Ever wake in the middle of the night with the sense that someone is watching over you? Some Cape Elizabeth residents on Mitchell Road say the feeling is not only familiar, but real.

Police are urging residents to keep their doors and windows locked after a single report of a home intrusion last month when a woman woke to the sound of her dogs’ barking only to find a man standing quietly in her bedroom, Police Chief Neil Williams said. 

“We don’t know how long he was there but it didn’t sound like it was very long,” Williams said. 

The scenario is familiar to resident Mary Chris Bulger, a member of the local neighborhood watch, whose home Williams said was broken into in February 2005.

“My husband came home around 11 p.m. and saw the bedroom door was propped open with a shoe,” Bulger said. “Then the guy ran out the front.”

Resident Susan Ryan said her husband also chased a man out of their bedroom after the holidays four years ago.

“My son had several friends sleeping over so when I heard the door open, I thought maybe one of them wanted to go home. I sat up in bed expecting to see a little person, not a man,” she said. “My husband jumped up and yelled ‘Hey’ and he took off out our side door. There were tracks in the snow and the police came right away but couldn’t find him.”

Bulger said she and several other residents who had spotted the intruder worked with Cape Elizabeth Police to create and distribute a sketch of the man. Ultimately, no arrests were ever made in relation to the break-ins, Williams said. He said the description of last month’s intruder did not match the old sketch.

“We can’t say [last month’s intruder is the same as the former suspect], because we don’t have enough information,” he said. “He could have bulked up, because this person is supposedly much larger than the guy before.”

Although only one report has been filed with the police, Bulger said she had heard of several similar incidents occurring in town that were not reported, something Community Liaison Officer Mark Dorval said could hinder an ongoing investigation.

“The biggest thing is reporting anything suspicious to the police,” he said. “It’s good to be able to track and see if there are any patterns.”

Resident Mike Moran -– whose neighbor is the person recently visited by the intruder – said he suspected there was “a seasonal component” to the crimes, as Williams said last month’s reported incident was “almost four years to the day” after the 2005 break-ins.

“There is a serial [pattern] to this thing,” he said. “He comes and he goes, there’s a rash of [break-ins] and then you don’t hear anything for a while. Maybe he’s a college kid on break?”

Williams said the police investigation had considered the seasonal pattern and found no correlation.

For now, Dorval said it is most important for residents to lock their windows and doors and make their homes “look lived in” to deter future break-ins.

“Motion lights are good,” he said. 

To report suspicious activity contact the Cape Elizabeth Police at 767-3323 or to leave an anonymous message on the “crime line,” call 767-2273. Always call 911 in an emergency.