Three teenage girls have been left horrified after waking to the creepy noise of a metal wire scratching at their hotel door during an apparent break-in attempt.
Charlotte, 17, who did not want her full name to be disclosed, shared a bloodcurdling video filmed from inside the room where she was staying with two friends at the Marriott Delta Hotel in Garden Grove, Southern California, on Friday.
The trio were staying in the hotel for a water polo tournament they were competing in close to Los Angeles at the weekend – but their vacation soon turned to horror.
Charlotte’s footage shows a long metal wire with a loop on the end emerging from beneath the door before scratching around in an attempt to hook the door handle just after midnight.
The stranger almost succeeds in their break-in mission, as the scary contraption grasps the handle at one point. Meanwhile, Charlotte beckoned for her friends in the room to come over.
‘Our first thought was it was someone trying to come in there and kidnap us,’ she told NBC Bay Area. ‘We were all just really scared.’
Charlotte said that she tried to communicate with the man trying to break into their room at by grabbing the wire and speaking through the door. They could be heard replying: ‘Hello? Is someone still here?’
‘Honestly it was probably one of the most scariest things that has really ever happened to me,’ Charlotte told NBC.
Charlotte’s mom said she spoke with the hotel general manager and they said they responded by conducting a room check and switching the teens to a new room.
The worried parent said they also admitted that the man using the wire was an employee – but she wasn’t reassured by their version of events.
‘They did confirm that it was an employee,’ she told NBC. ‘When I asked if the employee had been terminated, I was told that he was going to be terminated.’
When asked what she thought was the purpose of the break-in attempt, she said: ‘I have no idea. Was it theft? Was it trafficking? I want to know.
‘The explanation that has been provided doesn’t add up.’
The hotel also apologized by giving the teenage girls a gift basket and a balloon.
Charlotte’s mother, her coach and other parents filed a police report with the Garden Grove Police Department.
The department said they are looking into whether the incident was an attempted crime, or a miscommunication.
‘There is the maintenance records and things like that, so whatever communication the hotel has with their staff, work orders, our detectives want to look into that more,’ Sgt. Nick Jensen told NBC.