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Secret Squatters / Hidden Housemates

Woman finds nonchalant homeless man eating her food in her kitchen. His last name probably did nothing to enhance his image with the cops when they arrived.
Homeless Provo man arrested after found sleeping in woman’s basement

A grandmother of eight, Washington City resident Rebecca “Becky” Collet says she was surprised when she walked into her kitchen Tuesday morning and saw a man she didn’t know wearing nothing but boxers and socks and eating food from her fridge.

Collet has lived at a home at the 100 North block of Main Street for about a year, which is directly behind the Washington City Police Department. She tells ABC4 News she would’ve been terrified if it weren’t for his quiet and nonaggressive demeanor.

Collet said she has no idea at this point how he got into her home, as there was no clear point of entry. She told ABC4 News she went on a walk with her friend Monday afternoon and may have left the door unlocked, or hypothesized he could’ve gained access while she was unloading her groceries.

She said she also is unsure how long he had been staying at her home, adding that she walked downstairs into her basement Monday afternoon and did not see any sleeping bags or pillows set up. She believes he may have just stayed Monday night, but also stated he could’ve been hiding in one of her closets in the basement. ...

Collet said she watched him sit against the wall of her home with his head in his hands as she called the police. Meanwhile, she said she realized he didn’t have any shoes on and asked him if he had shoes. She said he replied, asking her if she had shoes for him.

“I walked downstairs to find his shoes and I found my sleeping bag, my pillows, and some food,” Collet added. “Peanut butter, an orange, some cheese, some of my Vitamin C packets.”

Officers with the Washington City Police department arrested the suspect, Paul Swindler, 33, at approximately 9:44 a.m, according to police records. ...

Collett said she showed officers several boxes he had been looking through trying to find something of value. Authorities wrote in arresting documents she gave them a few bags Swindler had left in the basement, which included a counterfeit 5-dollar bill. ...

Police said they learned Swindler had an active warrant for his arrest and he is now facing felony burglary and forgery charges.
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FULL STORY: https://www.abc4.com/news/southern-...sted-after-found-sleeping-in-womans-basement/
 
A homeless guy in Nevada took up residence in the ceiling of a grocery store ...
Man found living in ceiling of Fernley Raley’s

The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office arrested a man after he was found living in the ceiling of the Raley’s grocery store in Fernley.

Sgt. Dan Lynch tells KOLO 8 News Now, 35-year-old Matthew Hammar had fallen through the tile in the ceiling and had crawled back into the crawlspace while employees were preparing to open the store just after 5 a.m. on September 30, 2020.

Employees called authorities who surrounded the store. After a while, they got him to come outside and he was arrested for commercial burglary.

Authorities said Hammar had been living in area above the deli for at least a couple of days, and had been stealing food from the store. They say they found some of his property in the rafters. ...

The sheriff’s office said Hammar is homeless and has had run-ins with deputies in the past.
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SOURCE: https://www.kolotv.com/2020/10/17/man-found-living-in-ceiling-of-fernley-raleys
 
What's worse than a simply furtive hidden housemate? One possibility is a hidden housemate who's your wife's secret lover and shoots you when your meth-addled spouse goads you into investigating the "intruder" in your home.
Alabama man shot by wife’s lover — who secretly lived in couple’s home

An Alabama man was shot in a gun battle with his wife’s lover — who was secretly living in the couple’s home for over a year, according to new reports.

Frank Reeves was shot in the chest by 53-year-old Michael Amacker inside his own Creola home around 9 p.m. Sunday, WALA reported, citing the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office.

Reeves opened fire in return, striking Amacker in the lower leg and elbow.

An investigation determined that Frank’s wife, Tracy Reeves, informed her husband that an intruder was in the home, according to the report.

But Amacker was no intruder — Tracy had allowed him to live in the home for more than a year, and her husband never had a clue, the outlet reported.

She secretly delivered food to her lover — who tried so desperately to remain undetected that he urinated in bottles discovered in his room, according to the station.

Mobile County Sheriff’s Capt. Paul Burch told the outlet that Amacker and Tracy Reeves were both high on meth, and described the case as one of the most bizarre he’s ever worked on. ...

Amacker has been charged with attempted murder, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of a firearm with an altered serial number.
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SOURCE: https://nypost.com/2021/08/19/alabama-man-shot-by-wifes-lover-who-secretly-lived-in-home/
 
hunck said:
Hard to believe he could’ve lived in the house undetected for over a year - was there a room the husband never ventured into?
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My ex's father secretly lived in a house with them for several weeks. He was a paedophile and had kidnapped her a couple of times, and at one point threatened to blow them all up. I don't know the full story (I'm not sure how much she knows), but it's pretty disturbing.
 
I really shouldn't read this thread just before sleeping because my dreams will probably conjure up something horrific! Lol!
 
I have a loft bedroom (a proper room with stairs going up from the landing and everything) that I hardly ever go up into. I don't need to, my bedroom is on the floor below and I generally only go up to clean or to put things in storage. Every so often I get a creepy feeling (usually when I get home from work in the dark) that there is 'someone' up there. Someone could live quite happily in that room for quite a while before I realised!

It's only the fact that Dreadful Dog wouldn't leave them alone (there's no door on that room) and I'd hear them moving about on the ceiling of my room that makes me think sensibly. But I still sometimes have to put all the lights on and make a lot of noise and stomp up the stairs...
 
catseye said:
I have a loft bedroom (a proper room with stairs going up from the landing and everything) that I hardly ever go up into. I don't need to, my bedroom is on the floor below and I generally only go up to clean or to put things in storage. Every so often I get a creepy feeling (usually when I get home from work in the dark) that there is 'someone' up there. Someone could live quite happily in that room for quite a while before I realised!

It's only the fact that Dreadful Dog wouldn't leave them alone (there's no door on that room) and I'd hear them moving about on the ceiling of my room that makes me think sensibly. But I still sometimes have to put all the lights on and make a lot of noise and stomp up the stairs...
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Anything could be lurking there...
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escargot said:
We've had mention of this subject before. I can remember posting about a friend who lived in a terraced house where the attics were only separated by a low wall, so that her boyfriend could sneak into her neighbours' houses and snoop around. Theft may have been involved, I can't remember but it seems likely.
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This happened once in our street. The attics were effectively on long one with a simple dividing wall that could be stepped over. Our neighbours suffered a break in with the toe rags coming in through the attic and out again. We were lucky in that we weren't touched it seems that they tried but our German Sheppard persuaded them to move along!
 
Tigerhawk said:
Anything could be lurking there...
View attachment 44266
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I know!!!
Okarin said:
This happened once in our street. The attics were effectively on long one with a simple dividing wall that could be stepped over. Our neighbours suffered a break in with the toe rags coming in through the attic and out again. We were lucky in that we weren't touched it seems that they tried but our German Sheppard persuaded them to move along!
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I think these may have been sorted now. When I bought my house my solicitor made sure that there were walls between the lofts in all the houses (it's a fire risk as fire can spread between houses much faster through the roof spaces, and my solicitor had had a serious house fire so he was VERY big on this sort of thing!)
 
EnolaGaia said:
This 2017 Queensland Times story describes a woman's growing certainty someone was living in her attic. Whether that certainty was warranted is a different matter (insofar as the presumed stranger wasn't captured). Either way, it's a nicely creepy story.


FULL STORY: https://www.qt.com.au/news/woman-finds-stranger-living-her-attic-hiding-her-c/3206542/
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pandacracker said:
An article about someone who had a secret tenant in their attic/loft

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/sep/10/experience-a-stranger-secretly-lived-in-my-home
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Amber Dawn narrates her own story here:


Starts at 1:32, but you can safely begin at 3:00.
 
Not a 'secret tenant' story exactly, but definitely a unwanted guest tale ...

When I was a university student I had the good fortune to find an inexpensive, small self-contained flat in a large early 20th-century house that was perfect for a penurious student. It has a compact kitchen and bathroom, and the main room contained a built-in captain's bed with storage underneath, a desk and shelving. There was also a clothes closet with storage shelving above. There was also room for a couple of chairs and small table. The best part was a mullioned bay window over looking the street and the park across the road.

The house also contained 4 other small flats on the main floor, and rooms with shared facilities on the first floor. The main entrance was gained by walking up a wide set of stairs onto a large verandah (so the main floor was elevated). The front door led to a small vestibule, and from there a locked door led to the hallway and then the stairs to the next floor.

Shortly after moving in, I discovered that not all was well in the house. Many of the tenants had mental health issues, others were less-than-law-abiding, and one in particular was just very strange and a little dangerous. This latter individual used to slip little notes under my flat's door, which was just next to the vestibule door. Whenever I saw him, i was polite but not friendly, but he continued to press his little notes on me and attempt to engage me in conversation. In a weak moment, I did speak with him and discovered that he had been a recent inmate at a large institution for the criminally insane. He informed me that he was OK now. The first guy he'd killed, he told me, had been a matter of self-defense, but the second one, he said, he didn't want to talk about 'because of the machete'. I tended to avoid the man, but because my apartment was right next to the vestibule and my window overlooked the verandah, my flat was the go-to-place for anyone who had forgotten their keys, and he forgot his keys a lot. Once, when I was in the shower and couldn't hear him banging on my front window for entry, he came around the side of the house to my bathroom window and attempted to hoist himself through that window, which I had open for my shower. I just saw these big arms coming over the sill so I grabbed the large stick that I used to prop open the window and proceeded to beat his arms and head until he dropped down to the ground below. He apologised later and explained that he didn't know I was home so thought he could just get in this way, as if it was perfectly reasonable.

I lived in that flat for all four years of my university attendance. It was a strange place and disturbing at times, but I was young and felt safe and secure. When I moved out, I passed on my flat to a friend (I will call her Sue) who was in need of a cheap place. When she moved in, she got to know that weird guy almost immediately. She actually invited him into the flat, where he proceeded to tell her all about what 'the girl who lived here before' had in her apartment. I had left some of my stuff for Sue, and he identified things of mine that had been in my closet and in the drawers under my bed. He knew where I kept my underwear, my socks, what books I had on my shelves, what was in my kitchen ... everything.

It turns out that the front door key also opened the door to my flat and this guy had been letting himself in and making himself at home whenever I left to go to uni for the day, to work on the weekends, or went out for the evening. FOR FOUR YEARS. It really creeped me out but I am very glad that I did not find out until after I had left the place. I don't think I could ever have set foot in the flat again once I knew that Mister Machete had been there. But it was cheap and it got me through university. The story also kept me in free beers for a few years.
 
I had a housemate once, who without telling any of us, one day brought home a hamster in a cage. Some colleague had wanted to get rid of it, and he had said he could take care of it.
I told him several times it wasn't acceptable and to find another place for it. I went on holiday for a week, and when I came back I found out the hamster had escaped the cage and was now living in the walls.
 
poozler said:
I did speak with him and discovered that he had been a recent inmate at a large institution for the criminally insane. He informed me that he was OK now. The first guy he'd killed, he told me, had been a matter of self-defense, but the second one, he said, he didn't want to talk about 'because of the machete'. I tended to avoid the man, but because my apartment was right next to the vestibule and my window overlooked the verandah, my flat was the go-to-place for anyone who had forgotten their keys, and he forgot his keys a lot.
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I'd have been gone from that place straight away, and I'm a bloke.
 
Here's a variation on the theme. A young British Columbia woman discovered a naked man who'd been living hidden in the trunk of her car for days.
B.C. woman finds naked man was living in trunk of her car for 3 days

A B.C. woman had the fright of her life recently when she discovered a naked man had been living in the trunk of her car. ...

Nanaimo resident Bethany Coker, who is a Red Seal diesel mechanic, noticed some mud in the front seat of her car earlier this week.

She deduced someone had broken in and spent the night in her vehicle so she cleaned and steamed the upholstery and moved on.

However, three days later she noticed the windows of her car were fogged up.

Then when she was inside the car she heard a voice say “hey.”

That’s when she discovered the naked man in her trunk and quickly realized something was wrong. ...

“At first I thought someone was playing a prank on me, and then when I realized what was happening, I just kept my phone recording because I wasn’t too sure what was going to happen,” Coker told Global News.

“I didn’t know who this guy was. I didn’t know if he was dangerous. And he’d been in my trunk for three days and didn’t say a single word.”

She said she’s been driving around with him, running errands and going to work.

“We’ve been to the grocery store together, we’ve got sushi together, gas together. We’ve been to work twice. Not a single word.”

Coker recorded some of the interaction with the man and put it on social media, where it has received thousands of views. ...

She can be heard in one clip asking the man if he is naked and him replying saying, “Yes, it’s a rite of passage.”

Coker did call the police right away.

“It was probably the most hysterical call I’ve ever been on,” she said. “They’re like, ‘What do you mean he’s been in your trunk for three days?’ And I’m like, ‘He’s been in my trunk for three days, please hurry up.'”

RCMP officers did attend and said the man has “significant health issues.” ...
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FULL STORY: https://globalnews.ca/news/8595242/bc-woman-naked-man-trunk-car-days/
 
poozler said:
It turns out that the front door key also opened the door to my flat and this guy had been letting himself in and making himself at home whenever I left to go to uni for the day, to work on the weekends, or went out for the evening. FOR FOUR YEARS. It really creeped me out but I am very glad that I did not find out until after I had left the place. I don't think I could ever have set foot in the flat again once I knew that Mister Machete had been there. But it was cheap and it got me through university. The story also kept me in free beers for a few years.
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I'd have left after a week or so!

A much tamer story; reminds of when a woman I knew told me that as a student in a student house, pairs of her kickers would disappear from her underwear draw in a chest of drawers in her shared room.

She was friends with the woman who shared the room, but then found out the sharer had been taking the knickers, washing them, and wearing them without permission.

That friendship broke up.
 
Lasted for 4 years before being discovered!

This video animates the story of an artist named Michael Townsend, a daring artist who Built a secret home inside of a mall and lived there for 4 years before being discovered. Townsend and 7 other artists built and furnished the 750-square-foot space in Providence Place, Rhode Island from 2003 to 2007.

The artists constructed a wall out of cinderblocks and a nondescript utility door to keep the underground room hidden from others in the mall. They managed to sneak furniture into their secret room and even had a Playstation 2. Check out the video to see photos of Townsend's secret mall apartment; I'm amazed by the fact that they were able to sneak in so much furniture, let alone live there for years without being caught.

https://boingboing.net/2022/07/04/t...om-in-a-mall-and-lived-there-for-4-years.html
 
ramonmercado said:
Lasted for 4 years before being discovered!

This video animates the story of an artist named Michael Townsend, a daring artist who Built a secret home inside of a mall and lived there for 4 years before being discovered. Townsend and 7 other artists built and furnished the 750-square-foot space in Providence Place, Rhode Island from 2003 to 2007.

The artists constructed a wall out of cinderblocks and a nondescript utility door to keep the underground room hidden from others in the mall. They managed to sneak furniture into their secret room and even had a Playstation 2. Check out the video to see photos of Townsend's secret mall apartment; I'm amazed by the fact that they were able to sneak in so much furniture, let alone live there for years without being caught.

https://boingboing.net/2022/07/04/t...om-in-a-mall-and-lived-there-for-4-years.html
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I remember seeing that video. Amazing that they got away with it for so long.
 
ramonmercado said:
Lasted for 4 years before being discovered!

This video animates the story of an artist named Michael Townsend, a daring artist who Built a secret home inside of a mall and lived there for 4 years before being discovered. Townsend and 7 other artists built and furnished the 750-square-foot space in Providence Place, Rhode Island from 2003 to 2007.

The artists constructed a wall out of cinderblocks and a nondescript utility door to keep the underground room hidden from others in the mall. They managed to sneak furniture into their secret room and even had a Playstation 2. Check out the video to see photos of Townsend's secret mall apartment; I'm amazed by the fact that they were able to sneak in so much furniture, let alone live there for years without being caught.

https://boingboing.net/2022/07/04/t...om-in-a-mall-and-lived-there-for-4-years.html
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Wow, no rent or mortgage, utility bills, water bill for 4 years! LOL
 
ramonmercado said:
Lasted for 4 years before being discovered!

This video animates the story of an artist named Michael Townsend, a daring artist who Built a secret home inside of a mall and lived there for 4 years before being discovered. Townsend and 7 other artists built and furnished the 750-square-foot space in Providence Place, Rhode Island from 2003 to 2007.

The artists constructed a wall out of cinderblocks and a nondescript utility door to keep the underground room hidden from others in the mall. They managed to sneak furniture into their secret room and even had a Playstation 2. Check out the video to see photos of Townsend's secret mall apartment; I'm amazed by the fact that they were able to sneak in so much furniture, let alone live there for years without being caught.

https://boingboing.net/2022/07/04/t...om-in-a-mall-and-lived-there-for-4-years.html
Click to expand...

“Artists”. Yeah, riiiight.

maximus otter
 
Wasn't there a story about someone who managed to live in a cinema ? I can't remember where I heard this, but the story had it that he'd even managed to smuggle a mattress in there.
 
I'd heard of a story where someone spent a long time living at his workplace, unknown to his bosses and colleagues.
I think it was some large company such as IBM, Microsoft or Apple that had its own campus and he'd joined as a student associate. Paid no rent and found a room that never got used by anybody else.
 
A bit different from the usual stories on this thread.

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — A Nevada couple was found secretly keeping a cache of weapons and living with their two kids at a northern Nevada children’s museum where they worked, authorities said. A janitor at the Children’s Museum of Northern Nevada was arrested late last week, KRNV-TV in Reno reported Friday. The 41-year-old man has been charged with child neglect and endangerment and possession of a suppressor and a short barrel rifle.

Authorities discovered the arsenal in a storage room, they said. A police report listed an AK-47 rifle, three handguns, a pistol, ammunition, knives and a taser that could have been reached by a child. The stash also included drug paraphernalia like a bong and a used marijuana joint.
Officials realized the family was living in the museum after the man’s 2-year-old child was spotted walking nearby unsupervised, the Carson City Sheriff’s Office said. It was not the first time police interacted with the man over his child being left alone. But this time, the toddler’s older sister gave deputies the museum as their address. ...

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/chil...vada-family-arrest_n_62cacbfbe4b02e0ac91555ff
 

Homeowner Smells Smoke on His Property, Cops Discover 24-Year-Old with Meth and Fentanyl Living in Attic​


Washington homeowner was shocked to discover that a 24-year-old man lived in his attic after he smelled cigarettes and saw that some of the items were missing.

The unidentified homeowner called the police Monday after following the smell of smoke and finding signs that a person was living in the loft area of his building.

Police stated in their report that they found a makeshift bed and clothes that weren’t theirs, food half-eaten, drug paraphernalia, and a heater upstairs.

He reported that he had lost $3,000 and his passport, as well as a wallet with a bank card and his license.

Police found Daniel Tomoiaga, a suspect in the burglary of the homeowner’s home, inside the property.

He was taken to Snohomish County Jail, and charged with second-degree theft and residential burglary. A judge gave him $25,000 bail.

According to police, Tomoiaga was well-known and had a long criminal history.

https://conservativeresearchgroup.c...ar-old-with-meth-and-fentanyl-living-in-attic

maximus otter
 
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