House Manager breaks into tenant’s house to sniff panties

By Staff Writer.

In July 2015, Ashley Chase, a 26-year-old financial analyst living in a Manhattan studio apartment, began to notice a series of strange disappearances. At first, it was a pair of purple lace bras. Soon, the list grew to include a black-and-gold bikini top, a tan bra, and several pairs of panties.

The situation turned from confusing to alarming when Chase returned from a holiday weekend in the Hamptons and realised that even the worn undergarments she had left in her dirty laundry hamper were gone. Suspecting that someone was using a master key to enter her home while she was away, Chase decided to conduct her own sting operation.

The Setup

Chase borrowed an old mobile phone from her sister and installed an app called Presence, which repurposes the device as a motion-activated security camera. Before leaving for Long Island over the Labour Day weekend, she positioned the phone near her front door and aimed it toward her living space and bedroom.

The surveillance worked almost instantly. Just minutes after Chase left the building, she received an alert on her primary phone: the camera had been triggered.

The Discovery

The footage provided a definitive and disturbing answer. It showed the building’s supervisor, 32-year-old José Cedillo, entering the apartment. Cedillo had watched Chase leave the building with her bags and used his access to enter immediately after.

In the video, Cedillo is seen disappearing into the bedroom. A few moments later, he re-emerges, holding one of Chase’s undergarments to his face and sniffing it. Chase later described the experience to the New York Post, stating, “He saw me leave… he knew I was heading out. I don’t want to think about what he was doing.”

Legal Consequences

Following the discovery, Chase contacted the police. Cedillo was arrested and faced a serious charge of burglary as a sexually motivated felony. During the investigation, Cedillo allegedly admitted to the police that this was not an isolated incident, stating he had entered the apartment months earlier as well.

According to court filings, he told officers, “I took a pair of panties. I left. I went downstairs, I sniffed them, and I threw them in the garbage.”

Cedillo eventually negotiated a plea deal with the prosecutor, agreeing to plead guilty to a lesser charge. He was released on a £35,000 ($50,000) bond.

The Civil Lawsuit

The incident prompted Chase to take further legal action to address the security breach. Represented by lawyer Benedict Morelli, she filed a civil lawsuit targeting not only Cedillo but also the building owners and the management company, Mid-City Management. The lawsuit alleged that the companies were negligent in their supervision of the employee and failed to protect the safety and privacy of their tenants.

The case became a prominent example of the potential for “master key” abuse in high-rise residential buildings and the effectiveness of low-cost DIY home surveillance in seeking justice.