Chloe White was sound asleep when she awoke in the middle of the night to a flashlight probing through her bedroom window blinds.

On a dark, cold January night, a stranger, dressed in all black with a ski mask, was recording White, a Towson University senior, on his phone as she slept.

“It’s absolutely terrifying,” said White’s roommate Devin Kaestner.

Kaestner, White and a third roommate live at the Donnybrook Apartments about a half-mile from campus and reported the incident to Baltimore County Police. But men kept coming: in February, twice in March and a couple of times in April, so far.

Police had notified the women in September that someone was recording through their apartment windows, Kaestner said.

“We didn’t think too much of it,” she said. “We thought, hopefully this is just another one-off thing. But then it happened again in January.”

The 25-year-old said she and her roommates bought Ring cameras and installed them inside their bedroom to try to capture footage of the men, which they later supplied to the police.

“The department continues to urge community members in the area of Donnybrook Apartments to remain vigilant as detectives work with Towson University and neighborhood organizations to identify and apprehend the potential suspects,” Baltimore County Police spokesperson Trae Corbin wrote in an email.

The Banner reviewed more than two dozen videos that Kaestner shared depicting several different men with various builds prowling, leering and surveying the three young women’s apartment over the past several months.

Little communication

Kaestner graduated from Towson University in 2024, shortly before she moved into Donnybrook Apartments.

As an alumna of the university, she said, she wants parents of students to be cautious when helping their kids determine where to live off-campus.

“They deserve to know about the situations going on, and there was nothing before we reached out to news, and it feels scary,” Kaestner said of communication from police, the university or the apartment management. “And if I was a parent, I’d be scared.”

She told The Banner that she and her roommates reported the “Peeping Tom” incidents to Donnybrook’s leasing office and the university — neither of which, she said, responded beyond recommending the women call the police, until they contacted local news outlets.

“There’s a part of me that feels frustrated that it took this long,” Kaestner said. “It just feels like we were on the back burner until this got to the news.”

Jamie Abell, a university spokesperson, wrote in an emailed statement that Towson is in touch with Baltimore County Police and committed to understanding how to support this investigation and all students in off-campus incidents.

How to ‘remain vigilant’

County police sent out a news release Monday urging community members living in or near Donnybrook Apartments to “remain vigilant.”

The department recommended residents take the following security precautions:

• Lock and secure all doors and windows
• Close blinds or curtains
• Install security cameras and motion lights
• Provide surveillance footage to police
• Trim overgrown shrubs and trees
• If you see someone suspicious, call 911 immediately

Kaestner said she was grateful that, after posting about their experience on Reddit and getting additional media attention, the roommates’ concerns were being taken seriously by local authorities. Still, the entire experience has put all three on edge.

“It’s giving me a new sense of hope, hearing all these people that care, a lot of people around the community reaching out,” she said. “But also a sense of fear it will only cause more issues, and I’m fearful it will send more people here.”