In march of 2021, a close friend of mine began isolating himself and would send me cryptic messages when I would ask him how he was doing and why he wasn’t showing up to our hang outs. 

I began hearing rumours from our friends that he was going around saying that someone had broken into his apartment on several occasions. Then, he asked to see me on the basis that I was the only person he trusted. 

When I got to his apartment, he seemed extremely paranoid and asked me not to speak too loud, and began looking outside the window. Then, he started to explain his story. I will detail this in his words : 

*In March of 2021, our friends gathered at a park near his apartment. When he got back, he noticed that his balcony door was locked, but he never locks it (he lives on the 4th floor of an apartment building). 

He found this to be odd, and started interrogating people around him. Then, he reported 4 more incidents all occurring while he was out with our friends. He started to tie the pieces together and would narrow down the friends that were with him every time it happened. He apparently got the police involved too. 

He’s a pretty messy person, and reported his passport to be stolen. Thus, the theory began that someone was trying to steal his identity. 

However, soon enough, the break-ins became more and more repetitive, so the theory that someone was trying to steal his identity started to make less sense. 

He would start believing that the neighbours were spying on him through his window and that a suspicious truck was parked outside his apartment building spying on him too. 

He installed a security system and began isolating himself, hardly ever leaving his apartment. During this time, he tried to figure out why someone would try to break in that often. 

My friend works at a bank and he is quite the character. You can say that management doesn’t quite like him because of his attitude, but he does a pretty decent job so they keep him around. 

With everyone working from home, I guess he started to think “maybe the bank wants to fire me and are trying to set a trap in my own apartment”. This is when things really start to escalate.

Now, his theory is that the bank is out to get him and have tap wired his entire apartment and installed microscopic cameras to spy on him. They have done so by implicating his neighbour’s, friends and internet supplier. Everyone is involved. My estimation is around 20 or so individuals are implicated in his suspicions. 

The story is that the bank hired all of his closest friends to jam and circumvent his security system, install microphones and cameras, and tap all of his electronics, computer and internet router. They also hired a private investigator to watch his every move. The bank is doing this in hopes to catch an incriminating moment that will allow them to fire him. 

My friend is an entry-level employee that has never seen a raise in the 17 years working for them, so it wouldn’t make much sense to spend an astronomical amount of money just to fire him. 

While I was at his apartment, he showed me a video sequence of his surveillance camera which seemed like a young man trying to open his door. He used this to validate his theory. I later learned that the person in the video was his neighbour that he gets along with and hangs out with quite a lot. 

He started accusing his best friends of conspiring against him, and began calling the biggest internet supplier in Canada, interrogating customer service as to why they are spying on him.

He claimed that he had proof, and that the police were taking his case very seriously. In one year, nothing came out of his police investigation.* 

His dad and I began tag teaming, hoping to get him to a psychiatrist for an evaluation. That didn’t end very well. He started suspecting his Dad of being in on it, and tried to manipulate me into catching the perpetrators with him. 

1 year later and he still spends every waking hour trying to solve this mystery, and still believes his best friends are working with the bank to conspire against him. He has shut me off for even trying to suggest that it all isn’t real and won’t talk to me about it anymore… although we still hang out from time to time. 

FYI -My sources come from one of our close mutual friend who sends me screenshots of their conversations and keeps me updated on his status. 

Just the other day, he came over for dinner. The next day, he claimed that a 25th break-in had been committed and that one of the invitees sent an absentee to his apartment during the evening. The reason behind the repetitive break-ins is that the perpetrators are trying to “clean” his apartment of all the bugs they installed. 

He refuses to consult, and believes that what is happening to him is 100% real. I understand this to be normal with psychotic episodes. 

I am here asking for any resources, or advice on how to approach this situation, from people who are living with schizophrenia and who have gone through a similar experience. 

I also feel like its important to mention that his mom suffers from Huntington disease.

Sorry… I don’t have a TL;DR for you. 

Appreciate the help!