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.
SQUATTER TURNS COUPLE'S DREAM HOME PURCHASE INTO NIGHTMARE
Hoggatt and his wife then told their daughter and son-in-law, Cherisee and Mark Gregory.
"I think they thought they were both going crazy. And I’m like, 'That doesn’t happen at the same time suddenly,'" Cherisee Gregory said.
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.
KANSAS BABYSITTER COMES FACE TO FACE WITH REAL LIFE 'MONSTER' UNDER THE BED
"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.
Mark went downstairs to see for himself what was happening as the person in the closet remained silent.
"When I get in the closet, I yell at the guy to come out," he told KTHV. "I have a baseball bat in one hand. I start hitting the door, or the frame, kind of just to scare him a little bit. And he finally says, 'OK, I’m coming.'"
GET OFF MY LAWN! 5 TIMES SQUATTERS TOOK ADVANTAGE OF UNWITTING HOMEOWNERS IN 2024
The man, later identified as Landis, told the family he was homeless and stepped out as deputies from the White County Sheriff’s Office arrived to arrest him.
According to authorities, Landis first arrived on April 27, living in the Hoggatts’ crawl space before moving to the basement the next day, April 28, where he created a makeshift bed in a supply closet.
The sheriff’s office charged him with residential burglary and theft of property, with his bond set at $15,000.
The White County Sheriff's Office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
The family emphasized that nothing was stolen from their home, and that they felt bad for Landis.
"We’re not angry at this man," Dutch said. "I feel sorry for the man. I’m glad we figured out there was somebody living in the house because this could have gone on for much longer than it did."