FARGO, N.D. – A local resident is urging neighbors to stay vigilant after an unknown man attempted to force his way into her home just seconds after she walked through the front door.
Jessica Schaller was driving home with her young son around 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, September 29th. After parking and bringing her son inside, she heard a suspicious noise at her front door.
“Not even a minute had gone by—I hadn’t even gotten him fully out of the car seat—and I could hear something at the front door,” she recalled. “At first I didn’t know that it was a person there… I put my son down, I walked over close to the door, and that’s when I found out that somebody was attempting to jiggle the door handle and open the door.”
According to Schaller, the suspect never knocked and continued attempting to pull the door open or jiggle the handle for about a minute. While her home only had internal security cameras, neighbors came together over the following week to compile security footage and still shots from around the block.
“I was terrified,” she said after reviewing the neighborhood footage. “In my mind, I wanted to believe that people are good… I was gaslighting myself after that happened because I thought it couldn’t have been a person trying to get in my house, it must have been a bird. But then when we came back in the evening and talked to neighbors, we found out that there was a vehicle there at the exact time.”
The security footage revealed that the suspect left his truck running across the street, walked between Schaller’s and her boyfriend’s vehicles, attempted to enter the door, and took off—a sequence lasting approximately three minutes.
She believes the attempt was deliberate rather than random.
“I do think that this person has possibly been watching me for a while,” she said. “I think he just thought he was going to get in right after me and didn’t really have a plan after that.” She added that she suspects the incident may be linked to recent online Marketplace meetups she had conducted.
Navigating the response with local law enforcement has proven frustrating due to administrative hurdles and shift schedules.
“It’s been a little difficult to contact law enforcement, I’ll be honest,” Schaller noted. “Technically I don’t know if they’re taking it as seriously as I would hope they would.”
The experience has altered Schaller’s perspective on community safety and daily routines. She now offers a stark warning for residents in the area.
“Keep your head on a swivel, because even though you think that Fargo-Moorhead is a safe community—and I have always thought that too—it’s clearly not,” Schaller warned. “If you see something that looks suspicious, definitely pay attention, call somebody… Just be aware of your surroundings, and maybe the neighborhood in general isn’t as safe as we think.”
