Texas police are investigating unsettling CCTV footage of a half-naked woman ringing a doorbell in a Texas suburb in the early hours of the morning.
The video, captured on a private security camera, shows a young woman dressed in only a T-shirt approach the doorway of a home in Montgomery, north of Houston, at around 3.20am on Friday morning.
She then rang the bell before abruptly leaving, according the owners of the house, who were awoken by the sound and decided to check the doorbell’s camera after getting up later that day.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A closer look at the tape unveils further disturbing details. “Something that appears to be a kind of hand restraint can be seen dangling from her wrist,” reports local news station ABC-13.
A local resident told ABC News that the unidentified woman apparently rang the doorbells of several other houses in the area, but always disappeared before the homeowners answered the door.
The mysterious incident has been widely shared on social media as authorities attempt to unravel the circumstances behind the footage. Amateur sleuths have suggested everything from an escaped kidnapping victim to a distressed hospital patient to explain the woman’s appearance and behaviour.
Police say they have received multiple tip-offs linking the woman shown on the tape to missing persons reports, but so far none have been a match.
Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said that officers have conducted door-to-door inquiries around the neighbourhood and are currently reviewing surveillance footage from other CCTV cameras in the area.