Posted on 05/06/2026 7:54:09 PM PDT by Red Badger
Can you even imagine finding out that a stranger is secretly living in part of your home without your knowledge or permission?
That’s exactly what happened to one family in Arkansas who started to notice that things around their home were being moved or going missing. They ventured into the dark corners of their basement and discovered that they had an uninvited guest.
According to the family, they are not mad at the man, who was just seeking shelter. They feel bad for him, but don’t want him living in their basement, just the same.
FOX News reports:
Family makes terrifying discovery in basement following growing suspicions
A Harding University professor and his family in Arkansas discovered a stranger had been living in their basement after noticing items mysteriously going missing from their home.
Dutch Hoggatt said in an interview with KTHV that he first suspected something was off when he noticed a pair of shoes he normally leaves near the home’s back door were gone.
“I asked my wife if she had thrown them away, and she had not,” he told the outlet. “Over time, we noticed that chairs had been moved around in the house. We noticed that some of our food was missing.”
Authorities later identified the man as Preston Landis, who had been secretly living inside the home for several days, moving from a crawl space into the basement before the family discovered him…
On April 29, the family began searching the house while Dutch Hoggatt was at church, when his wife, Sharon Hoggatt, entered a storage closet beneath the basement stairs.
“She went further into the closet, and that’s when I saw her eyes get really big. She starts to back out and says, ‘There’s someone in there. I see their leg or their jeans or something,'” Mark Gregory said.
Watch the video report below:
https://twitter.com/i/status/2051796801100067249
This is the culprit.
In a way, the homeless guy was very lucky here. Some families would have searched their home armed with a gun in a case like this. Things could have turned out very differently.
😄
we were recently house hunting in SE MO and NE AR..
basements are rare... amazed he found a house with one.
LOL - that was my first thought. I feel bead for the old bugger.
Yes.
Regards,
Regards,
why the surprise at the missing merchandise? did they expect him to go all the way to the mall for stuff already in the house?
smiles smiles /s
That’s why I always look under my bed before I go to sleep at night.
A coworker had this happen to him. The house had a basement storage area that wasn’t accessible to the main living area. The trespasser cut off the lock and my coworker found him when he heard noises.
ROFL!
They said they can “empathize” with him?!
Nope, found someone living in mine.
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