A neighborhood in Texas has been consumed with mystery after a security camera recorded a barefoot woman wearing only a t-shirt and what appears to be wrist shackles frantically ringing the doorbell of a Montgomery County home in the early hours of the morning.
The incident, which occurred after 3 a.m. on Friday, was captured by a doorbell cam recently installed at a home in the Sunrise Ranch subdivision, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office. The unidentified woman, seeming somewhat panicked, appears suddenly out the bushes and rings the bell a few times before the seconds-long clip cuts out.
The resident later reviewed the footage from a private security system and immediately passed it along to authorities, who are now working to find and identify the woman, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Another home-owner in the area, who did not wish to be identified, said her doorbell rang at least 20 times Friday night, prompting her husband to make his way downstairs and to their front door.
“He walked outside,” she told Click2Houston. “No one was in sight. It was like she disappeared in thin air.”
Since authorities shared the footage — which was also published on the neighborhood’s Facebook page over the weekend — they’ve received a slew of tips suggesting the woman could be a missing person in various cases, some of them as far away as Canada, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Lt. Scott Spencer told the Chronicle.
Authorities have not yet been able to link the woman to any missing persons in the database and have gone door-to-door interviewing people in the neighborhood. They’re also reviewing surveillance footage from nearby businesses.
Social media comments below the video suggest the object around her wrist could actually be a lanyard and not broken cuffs, as many fear to be the case. Spencer declined to speculate on the details of the case and would not confirm whether or not the woman did in fact have shackles on her wrists.
The @MCTXSheriff is investigating the suspicious incident that occurred in Montgomery, TX. Please share this post so it can be monitored by law enforcement.
If you have any info regarding this or if you know the woman or if yoy are the woman in the pictures please contact us. pic.twitter.com/sqwUF1Ls4u— MCTXSheriff (@MCTXSheriff) August 26, 2018
The case is ongoing, he said and “there’s still a lot to be done.”
He also urged residents to be careful when answering their doors, noting the woman could be part of a scheme rather than a victim.
“Answer the door but call form the other side of the door, don’t actually open the door,” he said. “Unfortunately the times have changed from yesterday so you have to be very careful.”
Anyone with information about the woman in the video is urged to contact the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office at 936-760-5800 and refer to case No. 18A243347.
Slave trade escapee would be my guess, as she appeared to be too frightened to stay out in the open very long.
Could be another Big Pharma victim… lots of that going around these days.
Could be a scam, but if it was, it would be unlikely they would stop short of the door being opened – both times.
That’s Jill on a bender…
LMAO!