Friday, October 11th 2013, 9:53 pm
A Tulsa woman said, after months of hearing noises in her ceiling and things going inexplicably missing from her apartment, she was shocked to learn what police say was in the attic.
Police believe they discovered a peeping Tom's hideout over several apartments, including Heidi Lane's.
Lane said that she is so shaken up over this that she left Tulsa to stay with her parents out of state. We spoke with her over the phone, along with the family of suspect, Carlos Perez.
"I felt safe, and come to find out the whole time, there was somebody right there watching me," Heidi Lane said.
Lane said, for the last year and a half, she's been hearing noises above her top floor apartment and that more than $500 worth of items have disappeared from her home without explanation.
"My friends just laughed about it, when I told them about it. 'That's crazy, you're just misplacing stuff,'" Lane said.
Maintenance workers at the Tower Crossing Apartments called police after making a startling discovery while working in the attic.
Detectives found insulation had been pushed back to create a crawl space, and small holes had been dug into the ceilings of the apartments below--Heidi Lane's in particular.
"There were holes in my bedroom, over my bed, and in my bathroom and in my living room," Lane said.
Detectives say, when they searched the attic, they also found pornography, a wig, women's underwear, unused condoms, pepper spray and a knife.
A short time later they arrested Lane's neighbor, Carlos Perez.
"Never in a million years would we think that Carlos would end up in this situation," said Perez's sister-in-law Sabrena Gaona. "Such a quiet person, family person."
Gaona helped translate for Perez's brother, Javier.
"He can't say that his brother is innocent, he can't say that his brother is guilty. 'If you're guilty, tell the truth just let it out,'" she said. "When he wasn't with his wife, he was with us. So it's like: how, where and when?"
According to the police report, Perez admitted making the holes and entering Lane's apartment once while she was gone.
Police believe Perez cut a hole in the fire wall to get to Lane's side of the building.
"It could have been so much worse. At any moment he could have come down," Lane said.
Heidi Lane says she should have listened to her dog who would often bark at the closet where the attic entrance is. She believes the suspect was macing her dog - in order to get in the apartment without being attacked.
Perez is being held on two complaints of burglary and three complaints of peeping Tom.
Lane said she has no intention of moving back to the apartment complex.
October 11th, 2013
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