Influencer Chloe Szepanowski fled home after traumatic break-in
Brisbane influencer Chloe Szepanowski shared a harrowing clip of an intruder raiding her $2.75m home, prompting her family to move out.
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An influencer couple have revealed the tragic reason they were forced to leave their home in the middle of the night and never return.
Chloe Szepanowski and Mitchell Orval were woken at 3am on February 25 to thieves inside their $2.75 million home in Broadbeach Waters, Queensland.
Dramatic security footage showed Mr Orval in their driveway attempting stop his partner’s car being stolen, with the 25-year-old nearly being run over in the process.
Ms Szepanowski told her Instagram followers on Monday the footage “gives me legit trauma because I was upstairs screaming while I didn’t know what was happening downstairs”.
The harrowing ordeal scared the couple so deeply, they immediately sought refuge at Mr Orval’s parents’ home, then stayed in a hotel until they found somewhere new to live.
Ms Szepanowski revealed the burglars found her keys and tried stealing her car, but were blocked by her partner’s car in the driveway as well as him stepping out in front of the vehicle they were trying to make away with.
“The guy tried to run Mitch over multiple times. I thought Mitch was legit going to be dead on the driveway,” she wrote in an Instagram story.
Ms Szepanowski said the thief and Mr Orval were going “head-to-head” in the front yard during the ordeal, which was the third attempted robbery for the couple in less than two months.
In the aftermath, the couple, who have a toddler and are expecting their second baby, outsourced help to pack up the entire home and sell their belongings so they “didn’t have to face it again”.
“That night that happened the cops came, we went to Mitch’s parent’s place (and) the house became off limits because the police had to do finger prints,” Ms Szepanowski said.
“We then stayed in a hotel for a month and never went back to the house.”
The couple stayed off social media in the wake of the ordeal out of concern for their safety.
“I didn’t feel safe to share what was going on so I just went MIA for a bit,” Ms Szepanowski said.
The incident has changed the family’s approach to protecting their privacy, with the expectant mum saying she now values her safety more than ever.
“We definitely learnt the value of our safety that night. Especially having children in the house. You go into some crazy mode of survival and fight when someone is in your house and you have young to protect,” she said.
“Our privacy is one of our highest values now.”
The couple have yet to purchase another home, and currently live in a property they previous purchased as an investment.
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