Midtown Sacramento couple says homeless man who sleeps outside their window threatened them
SACRAMENTO — A midtown Sacramento couple said they fear for their safety even inside their home after a series of threats from a homeless man who has been sleeping outside their window.
So far, police say no crime has been committed.
A peek out her window had taken on a new place in Debra van Hulsteyn's life.
"It's like, I want to go out of my house, is he out there?" she said. "I'm afraid to walk out the house."
Debra and her husband Dave snapped a photo of the man they say has been sleeping outside their home, threatening them with their lives, even as they sit inside.
"He called me a f------ c---, that he was going to cut me up," Debra said. "And he's looking at me right in the eye."
Dave is recovering after just undergoing open heart surgery.
"You don't want to get really angry and anxious and startled when you're trying to keep your heart quiet," he said.
The pair have called the police repeatedly and filed a police report. Officers say the man's actions so far have not risen to the level of a crime.
"Bottom line is they said it wasn't a viable threat," Debra said.
Dan Tibbits' sister, Kate Tibbitts, was killed inside her Land Park home by a man who is now charged for her murder.
Troy Davis was homeless and had recently been released from custody. Tibbitts believes weak California laws are to blame for unchecked criminal behavior.
The van Hulsteyns reached out to Tibbitts for guidance.
"Well, the person who murdered my sister was in my sister's neighborhood for a couple of weeks," Tibbitts said. "The situation that Debra finds herself in is like the situation my sister and her neighbors were in before my sister was murdered. So what direction is it going to go?"
A Sacramento Police Department spokesperson said they have identified the man making threats to the couple. His name is in a police report and the van Hulsteyn's can use that name to request a restraining order against him.
That is their next step.
"I don't know who he is but he's really loud and he's really scary and he seems aggressive, Debra said.