A university student has returned from an holiday to find a stranger living in her Sydney apartment.
University of Sydney student Denoora Lyu, 22, found Dylan Patrick Yelkovan, 30, shirtless in her two-bedroom apartment in inner-city Pyrmont on February 17.
She and her partner, William Qu, were shocked by the encounter, but the intruder was not.
Instead, Yelkovan calmly said he had been ‘setting up the house’ and began gathering his things.
Footage showed the 30-year-old collecting items from around the trashed apartment, casually went between rooms to get dressed and used the balcony to escape.
‘I felt really shaken. There was a complete stranger standing in my home, and he wasn’t even wearing a shirt. It just didn’t seem normal,’ Ms Lyu told 7News on Friday.
‘I kept thinking, what if he had a knife? I was scared of what he might do.’
Ms Lyu believed Yelkovan also used the balcony to enter the apartment, which she was temporarily subletting from a friend.
The couple were able to perform a citizen’s arrest with the help of their building manager and Yelkovan was jailed awaiting a court hearing.
On further inspection of the apartment, Ms Lyu found all her belongings had been rifled through, including her computer which Yelkovan had used to listen to music.
The stranger had also worn Mr Qu’s clothes, leaving them stained with faeces, and left the toilet unflushed.
One particularly odd detail which left Ms Lyu disturbed was an attempt by Yelkovan to beautify the home by turning a wine decanter into a vase and filling it with flowers.
The couple had to throw out almost everything Yelkovan used and spent nearly $2,000 on a hotel for a week while the apartment was professionally cleaned.
They later found Yelkovan had used Mr Qu’s bank card, with transaction records indicating he had been in the home for a week.
Fortunately, the bank refunded the stolen money.
Ms Lyu never expected to be the victim of an attempted-squatter.
‘I’ve seen stories about break-ins like this before, but when it actually happens to you, it’s still really shocking,’ she said.
Yelkovan was released from custody following his court hearing at Sydney Downing Centre on April 1.
He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment, to be served as an Intensive Correction Order (ICO) for the break-in, running until December 31.
The sentence means Yelkovan will be free but subject to strict supervision, cannot use drugs and must steer clear of prohibited locations – including the apartment in Pyrmont.
Ms Lyu has since seen him in Sydney’s CBD.
Yelkovan also faced charges of driving without consent, reckless driving, breaching a domestic violence restraining order, and multiple counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception.
He pleaded guilty to the charges and was handed another ICO running until March 31 next year, with similar conditions of supervision and good behaviour.