Masked trio rings doorbell, throws rock through Center City apartment window

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Five young women living in a Center City apartment say they're frightened and shaken after three masked people rang their doorbell and later threw a rock through their window in broad daylight Friday.

The incident happened around 4:45 p.m. on Locust Street, where a Ring camera recorded three people wearing masks and hoods, one standing at the door and two others out of view. The women inside did not open the door.

Caroline Morley, who lives in the apartment, said she saw the alert while working from home.

"I was working from home and saw that someone had rang the doorbell, and so I'm watching them live, and I'm like, 'OK, that seems kind of bizarre, they were like trying to ring the doorbell they must have the wrong spot.' But they just kept saying, 'Does Locust live here?'" she said.

In the footage, one person can be heard asking, "Locust here?" Another clip caught someone saying, "Production company."

Donna Corina, another resident, said, "They also said something in the Ring like production."

Morley said the group lingered. "We saw them on the camera, and they were there for at least 2 to 3 minutes."

The women never answered the door, but soon after, a neighbor knocked to tell them someone had thrown a rock through their window.

"She was like, 'Hey, I'm not sure if you guys know, but someone threw a rock through your window,'" Morley recalled.

"Our living room is right there; that could've easily hit one of our friends in the head... someone could've gone into our home," Corina said.

Another neighbor told them they saw the group flee into a car.

"She was outside, was able to kind of put pieces together that they had a getaway car too at the corner down there by Bold," Morley said.

On Sunday night, police confirmed a similar rock-throwing incident occurred on North Uber Street in Fairmount. However, officers said there is no information connecting the two cases and no other similar reports.

Police confirmed that the suspects are two men and one woman.

An anonymous neighbor in Fairmount said, "I would just like to see more police presence, there's a lot of quality of life crime that's happening." The neighbor added, "Maybe make an example out of some of these folks and start to send a message that we're pushing back."

Some residents said they're struggling to understand the motive, but said police told them the group was likely "baiting" them.

"Really hard to understand what the motivation would be, whether it was done out of frustration or they were trying to bait them into coming out..." the neighbor said.

Corina said the roommates have considered the same possibility.

"There's so many different theories out there as to what they were trying to do, one of them is I guess they hope that someone answers the door, and then when they answer the door, they come in or forced entry," she said. "They were baiting us. That's what we've learned, baiting."

The women say support from neighbors helped them feel safer in the days afterward.

Now with a new window, these women hope they've seen the last of those three.

"Definitely really frightened us. I think we're all a little rattled from it still, but I think the shining light is just that we all have really great neighbors and we have a really good support system to help us, but definitely a little unsettled."