Saida M Callahan Saida M. Callahan first verbally assaulted me; then she locked me in a hot sauna preventing my withdrawal from the assault; and then she physically assaulted me. I called the police. By the time the police arrived Saida M. Callahan had fled the scene. Chicago Illinois
POLICE # HW421574 – Battery
Date of Incident: August 24, 2013 at 10:30am
Place of Incident: 155 N Harbor Drive Condominium, Health Club Sauna
Assailant: Saida M. Callahan
Assailant address: 155 N Harbor Drive Condominium, #3402, Chicago, 60601
Assailant contact: (312) 565-2191
Assailant alt contact: Stroger Hospital of Cook County, Clinical Nurse
Incident Description: Saida M. Callahan first verbally assaulted me; then she locked me in a hot sauna preventing my withdrawal from the assault; and then she physically assaulted me. I called the police. By the time the police arrived Saida M. Callahan had fled the scene.
Preliminary Notes:
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Here’s what happened
On Saturday, August 24, 2013, I went to the sauna. The sauna was turned ‘off’ and no one was inside. I turned the sauna ‘on’, opened the door and then went to the shower area. After my shower, while walking to the lockers, I noticed the sauna door was closed but didn’t see a person inside. I opened the sauna door and continued on my way. All of a sudden, I heard ‘Don’t open the door! Leave the door closed!’, followed by a loud slam of the sauna door closing. The tone was not polite.
I stepped into the sauna closing the door behind me. Immediately the loud, offensive, distressing, haranguing began. There was no cause for the haranguing. There was no reason for her behavior. All I had done was enter the sauna and close the door behind me. No sooner had I sat down when Saida M. Callaghan flew into a rage. Volley after volley of non-stop haranguing spewed from the darker, recessed part of the sauna.
And, there was confusion in her mind because nothing she said made any sense whatsoever: “Why do you do that?!” “Why do you open the door?!” “Nobody does that!” “Who are you to do that?!” “So you are the one that always leaves the door open!!” “Nobody does that?!” “Who do you think you are?!” “Don’t do that again!!” “Wait, I’ve never seen you before. I have been here for 20 years. I have never seen you before!!”
It was so intense! I just froze hoping Saida M. Callahan would calm herself and stop. But she didn’t. Instead her outbursts became more violent: “Get out!!” “You are not supposed to be in here!!” “Get out!!” “Get out!!” As she screamed, she leaned her body forward, arms flailing. And in that small space, heat turned higher than comfortable, I felt pinned down. There was nowhere to move. Just a few inches across from the small bench where I sat, is the sauna heater. It is easy to burn yourself if you stand up quickly and cannot steady yourself; and my heart was racing.
Not knowing what to do I pushed the door slightly open with my foot, and hoped again this deranged woman would calm herself and I could get up and leave. Not so. Again! This time she tipped the scale to full blown violence.
Saida M. Callahan flew off the rafter and closed the door yelling: “This door will stay shut!!” And she held the door closed. Then she said, she “will hold the door closed and you (meaning me) will not open it!!” I said, 'it is against the law to hold the door closed in this manner'. To which she fired back an incoherent, “I will hold the door closed, and I will call the doorman.”
Wow, I thought. Here is my chance. “Yes", I said. "Yes, please do call the doorman. Please call the doorman right now.” But I had it all wrong. “I will", she said. "But not right now. I am going to hold this door closed. And you are not going to open it!”
As calmly as possible, I said that she can’t do that. That, “it is against the law to shut someone in against their will.” So she responded, “OK, I will hold this door closed and open it when you want to go out.” Naturally, I said that I would like to leave. So she opened the door, remaining sentry where she was. And as I walked through the door’s threshold, she pushed me. Pushed me strongly enough that I went flying into the locker’s opposite.
Immediately I went to the in-house phone and called the doorman. While on the phone I looked to see what the woman was doing and saw that she had re-closed the sauna door and was peering at me through the sauna window. I asked the doorman to call the police and to send the other doorman to the health club. I waited for the doorman in the health club exercise area. There are cameras everywhere, and from where we stood we could observe the women’s locker room only entrance.
The police asked the doorman to call Saida M. Callahan’s unit, # 3402. The doorman called. There was no answer. The police asked if the doormen had observed Saida M. Callahan leaving the building. The doormen responded that Saida M. Callahan of Unit 3402, did go past the door console to leave the building; and further stated, that she said she was late for an appointment and left.
The police asked the doormen to verify with the parking garage that Saida M. Callahan had left. The doorman returned saying the parking garage verified Saida M. Callahan had left 20 minutes earlier. Saida M. Callahan left the building knowing the police were in the building. Not only had the doormen informed her, but the police squad car was clearly visible in the building's driveway.