Lakeview woman fights off man who broke into her apartment

CHICAGO (WLS) -- It happened in the 3200- block of Clifton. A man came down this long gangway and entered through a side door, climbed the stairs, and entered a young woman's bedroom. Tonight, Isreal Garland is charged with criminal trespass, just a misdemeanor, because he never touched this young lady.

"He slowly started to walk, as I was screaming, over to my bed, stopped here and tried to lay down across me," Cory Seeger says.

Cory Seeger is calm and composed tonight. Early this morning - she woke up to find a strange man had come up the back steps, crossed through two rooms, and was trying to get on top of her in bed.

"I looked to my nightstand, hoping I could get something like a lamp, and I had a pair of tweezers, so I stabbed him with my tweezers," she says.

That caused him to back away - giving Seeger the chance to call police.

"There were screams, for sure screams , I was hoping someone in the building or outside would hear."

Seeger says the man appeared high or drunk. Surveillance video from two blocks away, two nights earlier shows a different man appearing in a similar state, trying to kick in the door several times before moving on. That man reportedly stole items from a neighbor's yard.

Police stats for Lakeview show overall crime is down 14 percent year to year.

"I think it's pretty safe, I haven't seen anything," says Mike Gleason, a Lakeview resident, "I hear about this today and it's surprising, but nothing normal I don't think."

Seeger has taken new precautions in the wake of the attack.

"We put new locks on all of the doors and just hope the statistics are against you from now on!" she says. "I got my one and hopefully I'm done!"

Seeger has nothing but praise for Chicago Police, who she says responded so quickly they caught the man as he was running down her back steps.