Man followed woman home from bar and tried to get in while she unlocked door, Bellevue police say

A man is facing stalking charges after police said he followed a woman home from the bar and tried to get into her home as she was unlocking the door in Bellevue. 

The Bellevue Borough Police Department said officers were called around 12:40 a.m. on Sunday about a burglary in progress at a home on Hallett Place. Police said the caller told them that she had been followed home from a local bar, and as she was unlocking the door, a man tried to get into her house. 

After a "thorough investigation," including a review of footage from a Ring doorbell camera and borough cameras, police said they identified a suspect. Wearing dark clothing, gloves and a baseball hat, police said he could be seen on surveillance footage following the victim on foot.

Police said they conducted a photo lineup with the victim on Monday, and she identified 26-year-old Anthony Bartos, who has no relation to this reporter, as the suspect. Bartos was arrested around 8:30 a.m. Monday, police said. 

Court paperwork shows he's facing several charges, including stalking, loitering and prowling at nighttime, harassment and simple trespass. 

Victim describes harrowing encounter

The woman, whom KDKA-TV is not identifying for her safety, said she's not staying silent because she hopes to prevent this from happening to someone else.

"I had no shoes on, my phone was dead, I'm struggling to get the top lock in because our lightbulb is burnt out," the woman said.

She said that as she tried to unlock her door, the suspect walked up the stairs, slowly and quietly. The woman then turned around and screamed at him. The man attempted to push her into the home, even grabbing the screen door, before getting startled and leaving the front porch while laughing. 

The victim kept screaming at the man until he disappeared. According to a criminal complaint, surveillance video from borough cameras shows Bartos following the victim shortly after she left a bar on Lincoln Avenue, staying one block behind her.

"For some odd reason, I was picked. He had to have watched me all night," she said.

The criminal complaint describes how Bartos is accused of doing this before. The court paperwork said the night before, two women told Bellevue police a man followed them back to their home and exposed himself when they reached the home. They got a clear picture of the vehicle he entered, and the car was registered to Bartos.

The complaint also states that Bartos had been arrested in a July 5 incident in McCandless, where police there described it as similar in nature.

"I'm going all the way downtown to court. I will be at every single hearing. I will hope and pray that every single thing that I give them shows them that he's gonna just keep doing it again," the woman said.

She's sharing her story and what she's learned so this doesn't happen to someone else.

"I feel like he has been pent-up for so long that when he saw me, it was game over," the victim said. "And meanwhile, I was the wrong one. His game is over."

The victim said they went to the same high school, but she never talked to him.