Female residents of Tel Aviv have been warned to be on high alert since the appearance of a stalker who uses the terrifying technique of cutting power in the victim's apartment and waiting for her to come out to the hallway electric panel.
Channel 12 reported this week that social media has been awash with messages from petrified women about men who are using the latest technique to "try their luck". It is still unclear whether the incidents are a work of one particular man or several individuals.
One of the women, Karina, spoke of her first-hand experience with the alleged perpetrator.
The young woman had returned from a local store and jumped into the shower when the electricity in her apartment suddenly shut off. She wrapped herself in a towel and went to the front door. As she was about to open it, she looked through the peephole, having read online accounts from other women.
The woman was horrified to see a mysterious man fiddling with the electric panel outside her door. He heard movement on the other side of the door, and realized the woman was watching him through the peephole, prompting him to start knocking frantically on her door and asking her if she was okay.
She said the man claimed to be a neighbor who recently moved into her building. He introduced himself as "Thomas" and had a clear American accent.
"Maybe he saw me a few minutes earlier leaving the store alone and then decided to follow me into the building, he was really waiting for the opportunity for me to open the door," she said. "I replied that everything was fine and that he had cut off the power in my apartment in the middle of the shower, so I has no intention of opening the door for him," she added.
"It seemed like he had done this a few times before because he knew how to handle the situation, he had his excuses prepared."
Karina filed a complaint with the police and later posted her account on a Facebook group, called "Jaffa-Tel Aviviot", where she was flooded with responses from women who either had experiences similar or identical to that of the young woman.