Two NJ strangers-in-the-house stories. One is far creepier.

Two stories crossed my desk this week. Both are unsettling. One is far creepier than the other.

Story one: the bathroom guest who wouldn't leave

In Berkeley Heights, a homeowner did something plenty of us would do without thinking twice. Someone knocked, asked to use the bathroom, and the homeowner let him in.

That's where it got strange.

Police say the man turned off the bathroom light and tried to hide, both from the homeowner and from responding officers.

Berkeley Heights police handled it and resolved things safely.

But they used the moment to remind everyone: don't let people you don't know into your home. If a stranger needs help, keep your door locked and call police instead.

SEE ALSO: Wildwood police seize illegal machine gun, stolen handgun

Story two: four hours, while the whole family slept

This is the one that actually gets under my skin.

In Neptune Township, police say 19-year-old Justin Johnson entered a home in the Jumping Brook apartment complex on a Tuesday night and stayed inside the living room for nearly four hours.

The homeowner and his entire family were asleep upstairs the whole time.

Nothing was stolen. Nobody was hurt.

The homeowner only found out because of a "doggy camera" he'd set up in the living room, footage he didn't see until the next morning.

Think about that for a second. An unfamiliar person sat in a stranger's living room for four hours, in the middle of the night, while a family slept a floor above him, for no reason anyone's explained.

Johnson was arrested Friday and charged with burglary. He's also facing a separate trespassing charge from a July 19 incident, at that same apartment complex. He's currently held in the Monmouth County jail.

Why I'm putting these two together

Neither man broke a window. Neither forced a lock. One got in because someone let him in out of basic kindness. The other apparently just walked in, uninvited, and nobody knew until morning.

That's the real thread here. Home security isn't only about deadbolts and alarm systems. It's noticing an unlocked door, a propped window, or, yes, a stranger asking for a small favor that feels harmless in the moment.

Lock up. Even when it feels rude not to help.