A 50-year-old Italian woman in Syracuse, who is only described by her initials R.P., has been hunted by a Nigerian man for months. Despite the man attempting to attack her, climbing up the facade of her house with a screwdriver, and his claims that R.P.’s house belongs to him, he has been continuously released from psychiatric care, only to show up back at her house sometimes hours after being detained.
“For a few months, I have been stalked by a Nigerian homeless man who camps out in my neighborhood and is in an evident psychotic state. In the grip of strong delusions, he believes himself to be God, and he convinced himself that my house is his, that his son lives here, who is Jesus, and that he must install a window in the house to allow the child [Jesus] to look out.”
For six months, the neighborhood has reportedly dealt with thefts and vandalism from the Nigerian man. The woman recounts that on Jan. 6, the situation sharply escalated.
“On Jan. 6, the man told me at 9 in the morning he was coming to install this ‘phantom window.’ Having ignored his request, he continued to ring the doorbell and broke a plate on my door,” said R.P. while speaking to Italian newspaper La Sicilia.
Police arrived and transferred the man to a psychiatric hospital, but they also told her that because of the man’s mental state, they “cannot place him in prison.”
The situation worsened on Jan. 15 when the woman heard a “persistent tapping” coming from her bedroom wall.
“Looking out over the balcony, I saw five police patrols under the house and a handful of people screaming at me from the street telling me that there was a Nigerian climber who was trying to break through the facade with a screwdriver,” she said.
Once he was detained for another psychiatric evaluation, the man allegedly returned at 3:30 a.m. that very same night, striking the external wall with such force that the woman fled her apartment.
“The man continued to strike and. Hearing the sound of falling debris, and when help did not arrive, I was terrified. I abandoned my house and ran away into the street,” she told La Sicilia.
She claims that after police initially returned him to his camp, he appeared 30 minutes later with an iron bar.
Police eventually took him into custody and hospitalized him in a psychiatric ward, but only after the woman contacted a friend at the hospital.
R.P. says she lives in a state of anxiety, and the man has posted her home on social media. He also tells medical staff that he intends to return to R.P.’s home.
“The black man has a Facebook profile; he posted photos of my house the day before he embarked on the crazy plan. He told the nurses he had to come back to put on that damn window. Someone is underestimating the situation or not doing their job well,” said R.P.
