Phrogging: Hider in My House (2022–…): Season 1, Episode 4 - Cat's Cradle and Ghosted - full transcript

- I knew he was in there.
I could feel him.

I felt like I could
almost smell him.

- I am terrified.

There is a green eyeball
staring directly up at me.

- That's the stuff
of horror movies.

Heads up, everybody.

Make sure
your crawlspaces are locked.

- He said, "I could kill you
right now."

- Man found hiding
between a family's walls.

- Intruder secretly living
inside her attic.

- Man slithers out
from under home.



- Make sure your crawlspaces
are locked.

- I hear footsteps.

I'm vulnerable, naked,
and someone is in my house.

- There was somebody
violating my home.

- I want to believe
it's in my head.

- It's a giant man's handprint.

- You came into my home.
You invaded my privacy.

- We had a phrogger
in our house.

In 2016, I'm living
in goodlettsville, tennessee,

About 20 minutes
north of nashville.

I work as a floral designer,
but I also hold yoga classes.

I've lived in this house
for 27 years.

It's an older neighborhood.

My home was built
in the early '60s.



I live in a split-level ranch.

It's about a half a mile
off the road.

I'm up on a hill.

I enter the doors that we call
the flower shop room,

'cause I work from home.
There's a door leading off

To the right that has
a large bedroom there,

About 600 square feet,
with 8-foot windows,

And then you can go upstairs
to the kitchen.

Walking through the kitchen,
there's three full bedrooms

And 1 1/2 baths.

I've raised seven beautiful
kids in this great house:

Four boys, three girls.

- We were homeschooled,

So we were all there
all the time.

There's big woods in the back,
and so we built

Lots of little secret
clubhouses in the woods.

And there's a big creek
going through it,

So we're always
catching crawdads

And just running wild
in the woods.

Super fun.

- It was great raising them
all there,

But I've really enjoyed living
in this big house by myself,

Having the floral business,
and the art,

And the yoga that I do here.

So when the kids moved out,

Yes, I did start branching out
and start dating.

It's terrifying to begin to date

For the first time
in your adult life,

Because I spent all those years
raising kids,

But it's exciting.

I started dating tony
the first week of may, 2014.

Tony and I met
on an online dating site,

And he was absolutely charming,

And it was fireworks,
in the beginning.

It was great. He's handsome.

Very intelligent.

He's a master electrician
who's very adventurous,

And I had always had
a great fear of heights.

I'd never ridden
a roller coaster.

- This woman... she doesn't want
to get on a ladder.

- But with tony,
I went skydiving.

- It was fun to see her
become more adventurous

And try new things,
because she trusted him.

He's a really cool dude.

- So about six months
into the relationship,

He told me... he said, "you know,

I know we're really
falling in love," he said.

"but there's something
I need to tell you,"

And I was like, "oh, no."

And he said,
"well, some years ago,

"I got into kind of a brawl
in a bar,

"and things got out of hand.

And me and this other dude
were fighting over a woman."

He said, "and I was arrested,
and I served time for it."

And he was very remorseful.
He was like,

"it was not something
that had ever happened before."

And I took the whole thing as,
you know what?

We all make mistakes.
I just... I let it go.

We were very in love,
so we decided to live together

After about a year and a half
of dating.

And that brings us
to about christmas,

December 2015, and there was
a beautiful treasure hunt

On christmas day for my gift.

And when you followed the clue,

There was a piece of jewelry
at the end of each clue,

Until it came to a large
carat-and-a-half solitaire,

Which was really beautiful.

And he came over,

And he actually got
on his knees and proposed.

I didn't really say yes,

Because I said
I wasn't gonna get married,

But I'd wear the ring.

The thing was,
it was a commitment.

I was just looking
for a companion.

After that,
things began to change.

We didn't have any incidences,

But he wasn't his happy,
happy, cheerful self.

Things were fine.

It's just, it was a little bit
colder than normal,

You know, but that happens,
so time went on.

And then I was like,
"the energy is changing.

Something's wrong,"
and a friend of mine

Knew that I wasn't
my normal bubbly-bubbly

And asked me what was up.

And she said, "it's
the boyfriend, isn't it?"

And I'm like, "yeah.
It's the boyfriend."

And she said,
"well, what is it?"

And I said,
"that I don't know."

I could just tell something
was different,

And this feeling
was getting really stronger.

So my friend, who did
background checks for a living,

Said, "hey, girl.
You need to take $2

"and go to the city
where he used to live,

"and from there,
you'll get a police report.

"and if anything's going on,

It's gonna be your first clue
of where he's at."

So I did that.

I went
to the sheriff's department...

And then, when I got there,

They said
there was more than one.

How much cash did I bring?

Because there were
several reports,

And they're $2 each.

A really nice deputy sheriff
walked up,

And he said, "you look
unfamiliar with those."

I said, "I am.
I've never read one before."

He said, "I thought."

He goes,
"I can help you with that,"

So he started reading
these reports, and he said,

"there's a lot more to this
than you realize,

"because on this judgment,
he has an inmate number,

So you don't know
what this is about, do you?"

And I was like, "no, sir.
I don't."

He said, "just take a breath.

You've got something
going on here."

He had been charged
with attempted manslaughter,

And this was a woman.
There was no dude.

It wasn't a man.

There was a woman

That he'd actually
boot-stomped a woman's face.

And I was absolutely horrified.

I was really pretty in shock

Because I didn't see
any of this coming...

So I continued to look
for police reports,

And it took me almost a week.

I found out that he was out
of prison for six months,

From that assault,
when he met me.

I was terrified
because of the contrast.

His actions were loving,
sweet, calm, peaceful.

He went to yoga with me
and did the meditations.

It was beautiful,
and then I find out

That he had a trail of charges
in the state of tennessee.

I was like, "oh, no."

I didn't know this person,

Because people don't live
in that type of a contrast,

Not in a healthy state.

- So all of this was
quite a surprise to us.

We didn't know anything
was going on,

And she kept it to herself.

I don't think she wanted
to worry us

Because there are seven kids.

We were very involved
in each other's lives.

Everything seemed very chill

Because he was very calm
all the time.

He never yelled.
He wasn't angry.

So it was quite a surprise
and caught us all off-guard.

- So I knew I was in trouble
with this guy

Living in my house,
so I went home,

And I pulled up, and he said,
"what are you doing home?"

Because it was an odd time
of day for me to be home,

But I'd taken off work
to go on my trail

Of finding documents
and sheriff's departments.

So I said,
"hey, I have some information

That doesn't settle with me."

I said, "you told me you got
in a fight with a man."

I said, "you know, I don't
want to go into the story.

"what I want you to understand
is, I am not comfortable

"with someone
living in my house,

Let alone being my partner,
with this type of past."

I said, "I can't... you lied
about it, you know,

And you need to leave."

And I'll never forget.

He was
at the top of the driveway,

And he was cutting
a piece of plywood

With an electric saw,

The skill saw,

And he stopped running the saw,

And he looked up at me.

And it was a look I'd never
seen in his face before,

And he was so dark.

His eyes were dark and slanted,
and he looked at me.

He turned his head up and said,
"I could kill you right now,"

And I was like,
"oh, wow. We are on."

It was
like this whole other entity

Was embodying him,

So I called 911.

So he was really upset
about that, and he drove off.

So to find out that information
and then him

To full-on verbally
threaten me... I was afraid.

The police got there.
They took me downtown

To file for an order
of protection,

Is how that goes,

And it was granted on the spot.

So two days later...
That's when it all started.

He entered the house,

And I knew
he had entered the house,

Because I had
an african mutated water frog

That was 20 years old,
and he killed my frog.

It was very unsettling,

And that's when it all started.

I woke up the next morning,

And I always go out
on the back porch

And have tea in the morning,

Do a little meditation,
little yoga.

And there was a gift
and a note on my table,

And the gift was
a threshold plate for a door.

We were redoing some doors
at the house,

And he left that on the table
with a note that said,

"I bought this 'cause
I wanted you to have it.

Let's work this out."

So I called 911, and they came,

And I told the officer
that I had been granted

A order of protection.

And then the officer
looked at me, and he said,

"you know,
I'm not gonna call this in.

"I'm not gonna allow you,

"on a whim of a note
that we don't know who wrote,

The ability
to ruin this man's life."

And then I changed the locks,

All the windows, all the doors.

Everything was locked down.

The evening of the third day,

I had gone asleep,

Sitting on my living room couch,

And I was sitting there,

And I felt someone
staring at me.

And I turned my head towards
the window and opened my eyes.

And there he was,
staring at me, and he said,

"you don't want to do this.
You're making a big mistake.

We can work this out without
the police being involved."

So I called 911 again.

They come out and take a report.

So then, the next day,
I'm working

On the flower shop.

And I heard something,
and I looked out,

And tony was in the front hedge,

And he was running
across the yard,

And took a right
to go back up into the woods.

So of course,
I called 911 again.

So my friend who suggested

The sheriff's department
called me up,

And she said, "vickie,"
she said,

"you know, I know
that you're nonviolent.

I know that you don't
want any harm."

She said, "but this
is gonna get you killed."

"this is not going away."

She goes, "you need to come out.

"I have a registered gun
that I can loan you

To protect yourself with."

And I said,
"I'll be there tomorrow."

So I went to see my friend,

And I took this little .45
on home with me.

- We grew up with guns
in the house.

My dad was a deputy sheriff,

And he taught
small arms training school,

So we knew what
a gun looked like.

We knew it was serious.

We knew that,
if you had a gun in your hand,

That it was to protect yourself,

So I'm very glad
that she had the gun.

- The day that I got that gun,
I fell asleep on the couch,

And I woke up,

And he had his face
pressed up against the glass.

And I had the gun in my lap,
and I dialed 911,

And I told him.
I said, "I have a gun.

He's here, on the front porch,"
and he ran off.

I called a locksmith again,
and he told me.

He said, "look, you need
an alarm system,

"because these guys
gotta be caught.

No one can catch him."

So I took his advice, and I
called an alarm system company.

They said they'd be there
the next morning, at 8:00 a.M.

So my youngest daughter
came over.

She knew I was really nervous.

I couldn't sleep
in the house that night.

I didn't want him coming in
and her being there,

Her see what was gonna happen,
or be a victim to something.

So we went and stayed
with a friend of hers,

And the plan was to be
at the house at 8:00 a.M.

The next morning
for installation.

- In 2016, I am installing
security systems

In commercial
and residential homes.

Usually, on a normal call,
it's a very simple process.

You walk in, meet the customer,
hang the stuff up,

And get out of there.

This was not one of those calls.

So I pull up to the home, meet
miss martin outside the home,

And she kinda explains
to me why I'm there.

As I survey the home,
I can tell it's a larger home.

It's gonna take me
about 3-4 hours.

- My daughter needed to go
to work, so I told the guy.

I said, "I'm gonna
take her to work."

- And I can't be inside
somebody's home

If they're not there,

So I leave
to go get some breakfast

As she takes her daughter
to work.

- So we both drove off,

And we said that we would
communicate on the way back,

So we'd return at the same time,

Because he's on a schedule.

And when I came back,
he had left his notebooks

And programming information

About the alarm system
upstairs, in the kitchen.

That information was at
the bottom of the driveway.

Now, this driveway's
almost a half a mile.

- As I'm eating breakfast,
I get a call from miss martin.

She's very upset and wanted me

To come back
to the home immediately.

I pull up
to miss martin's house.

She meets me at the end
of the driveway,

Asking me if I did this.

- I asked him.

I said, "look, I've got 911
on the line.

Did you leave these?"

- My answer was, "no, ma'am."
I knew that I didn't do that,

Because I had left it
inside of her kitchen.

- So I told her
what was going on,

And so she advised me,
"stay away from the house,"

And that they would call units.

And two police officers
pulled up.

- Ask us a lot of questions:

If I have seen
any kind of forced entry,

If I've seen anybody
in the home.

- They entered the house,
and then they left.

- So next, I go back to work
getting miss martin protected.

- And I had a chair
that I would sit in,

And on the ottoman
in front of it,

I put my laptop,

And to my right
was my bedside table.

I had my cell phone charger
there,

And I called my friend,
and I said, "he's in the house,

"and the police have been here,
and they said he's not here,

But I feel him, and I know
it's going down today."

"it sounds like you're calling
to tell me goodbye,"

And I said, "you know,
I kinda feel like I am.

I just want you to know
I love you, and kiss the kids."

And so we got off the phone,
and I set my phone

Down on my bedside table
with the phone charger in it,

'cause that phone
was my lifeline,

Because this was day nine.

And I was using it all day
to call the police,

And I kept up with that phone.

So I set it down,

And the alarm installation guy
came in,

And he said,
"miss martin, I'm done here,

And this is the part

Where we install the app
to your telephone."

- So I asked her
to go get her phone.

- So I reached over
to grab my phone,

And the phone was gone.

I said, "cooper,
dial my landline number,"

Because my landline is always
forwarded to my cell phone,

For business.

And I just realized,
in that moment,

That it hadn't rang all day.

- So I made the phone call.

The phone goes
straight to voice mail.

- So I knew he had disabled
my landline.

- At this point, miss martin
starts to hyperventilate.

- I said, "cooper,
this is going down right now,

"and you need to get out.

He's in the house.
Dial 911."

And I jumped out of my chair,
and I grabbed the revolver.

- She starts repeating,

"he's in here.
He's in here,"

And then pulls out a gun.

When she pulls out the gun,

I'm personally feeling
a little uneasy,

So at this point,
I go around the house.

I check in five bedrooms,

Two bathrooms, a workspace,
and nobody's there.

- And I've got this gun,
and I reentered my bedroom.

I knew he was in there.
I could feel him.

I felt like I could
almost smell him

Because the feeling
was so intense.

And I looked at
the foot of the bed,

And I pulled the bed skirt up,

And I leaned down,
and I saw him.

And I told him,
"I see you under my bed.

Give me my phone."

And he didn't let go
of the phone,

And I leaned down
with that revolver.

Said, "give me my phone."

- After I searched the upstairs
of the home and realized

That there's no forced entry...
I haven't seen anything,

At this point...
I walk back downstairs,

And then I hear a boom.

I walk into the bedroom.
I see miss martin.

She's holding the gun,
pointing at the bed,

And I don't see anyone.

I ask miss martin,
"did you just shoot that gun?"

And she says, "he's under
the bed. He's under the bed."

Next, I ask for miss martin
to hand me the pistol.

She says, "no, no," and fires
another shot at the ground.

- But I didn't hit him.
I hit the baseboard again.

I knew what I was doing.

- I go into the bathroom
and call 911.

I'm in the bathroom,
just thinking,

"I don't know if there's
somebody under the bed

Or if miss martin
is just having a mental break."

- He still didn't give me
the phone, and I said,

"give me my phone now!

I shot it again.
I shot him in the left foot.

- I said, "I'm not kidding.
- Give me the phone,"

And he screamed,
"vick, I'm hit! I'm hit!"

And then I shot that gun
at the baseboard.

I told him. I said,
"don't ever say my name again."

- Then I hear miss martin say,

"I've got one more bullet
in this gun,

And it's got your name on it."

- And he threw that phone out,
'cause he heard that

In my voice,
and I was really serious.

- I'm on the phone,
and I tell 911

The location where we're at,
so I go outside

And meet the police
at the end of the driveway.

- So he gave me the phone.

I dialed 911
and put it on speaker.

So I said,
"this is vickie martin,

"and I'm holding tony gunter
under my bed.

I've shot him,"
and they said, "we know,"

And they said,
"miss martin, go outside."

And I said,
"oh, I will not go outside.

You can't catch him,
and this is where it ends."

- So about five
police officers show up,

As well as a medical unit.

I'm relieved to see the police,
but at the same time,

I'm worried for miss martin
still inside the home.

Police go into the side door.

- And I heard them bust through,

And then, all of a sudden,
I heard a voice, and it said,

"drop the gun."

And I said,
"I will not drop this gun,"

And the officer
repeated himself.

He said, "I'm only gonna say
this one more time.

Drop the gun,"

And I was like, "oh, wow.
This is happening."

So I set the gun down
very quickly.

They rushed the room.

They handcuffed me, and then
they took me up the stairs.

As they were beginning
to take me up the stairs,

They dragged tony out
from under the bed.

- It takes about five
to ten minutes,

And then someone comes out
on the stretcher,

And it's not miss martin.

I just see a very large man

With blood
coming from his ankle.

Oh, my gosh.

There was
somebody there the whole time.

I searched the entire house,

Except for the one place
he was, which was the same room

I had been working in
the whole time.

- So I saw them take him out
from under the bed

And take him out of the house,

And at that point,
they took me upstairs,

And they sat me
at my kitchen table.

I started to go into shock,

And I saw two officers
that I recognized.

They came in,

And one told them

To get
the handcuffs off of me now.

And the other female officer
walked up, and she said,

"vickie, tony was arrested."
and she looked at me.

She said,
"vickie, look at me."

She goes, "you're going into
shock," and I looked at her.

I said,
"please don't let that happen."

And she took me
through this breath pattern,

And that my eyes
started to regulate again,

And the brain started
to calm down,

And I could breathe.

- This whole experience is just,

First off, eye-opening.

I think of miss martin
as a very strong, strong woman

Who had all odds against her,
nobody believing her,

And still persevered.

- She stood up for herself
and defended herself

And took all the proper steps
that she needed to,

And she's still here
with me today.

So I'm very proud that she was
able to make a decision

That was, I think,
for the best, at the moment.

- We never found out
how he was entering

And exiting the house.

Sometimes life just happens,
and you don't see it coming,

And you don't know.

And you have to be ready
to put your best forward,

To take good care of yourself,

To find that beautiful being
that you really are,

And love yourself enough to go
through the recovery effort.

And because of all of this,

I became
a kundalini yoga instructor.

I opened up my own studio,

And I opened up
a teacher training school,

So it can be really sweet
on the other side.

- In 2019, I'm living
in knoxville, tennessee.

- Me and paul met about
six, seven, years ago

In a mexican restaurant
in knoxville.

I saw him sitting at the bar,
so I kind of guided my friends,

So that we could sit near him.

And we struck up conversation,
and was a very funny guy,

So he made me laugh.

We switched numbers,

And then
we started seeing each other.

- We really got along
very, very well,

And things were getting serious.

- My daughter and I
were living in an apartment,

And a couple years later,
paul moved in with us.

We knew that we wanted to live
in the north knox area,

And the apartment was just
too small for all three of us,

So we found
this great house for rent.

So we pull up to look
at the house, the first time,

And I immediately notice
the big, covered front porch.

It had some nice bushes
in the front,

And I could tell
it was really old,

And I love old houses.

They just have
a lot of character.

And immediately, we knew
that's where we wanted to live.

- It was just
a much better situation:

More space, all renovated,
very pretty well taken care of.

- Our neighborhood is the
historic north knoxville area.

It's called happy holler.

- It's a very nice neighborhood.

- Big, beautiful
victorian houses.

Sidewalks lined with trees.

- Close to everything.

- Local breweries, restaurants.

- "neighbors look out
for neighbors" kind of place.

- So we walk in,
and it's a big living room.

To the left
is the first bedroom.

It's big.

On the left
is another huge bedroom.

Big bathroom on the right,
and there's a huge kitchen

And another big deck
on the back.

And it had a big backyard
that was fenced in.

- So our house was built
in 1910.

It's an old house.
Some things would happen.

Creaks.
Noises.

- One night, it was about 3:00
in the morning.

We were all sleeping, and above
the living room fireplace,

I have a huge picture hanging.

And somehow, the picture
falls off of the wall

And goes smashing to the ground,

Making this huge noise.

All of us just come running out

At the same time like, "what?

Ah! What's going on?"

So I notice,
after the picture fell,

And we were picking up
all the glass,

That the hook it was on
is still attached to the wall.

So I know that the hook
did not break,

And it just fell off the wall.

It seemingly, like,
was picked up and dropped.

There are good things
about old houses,

And then there are
the bad things,

Because you often wonder,
"what if that was a ghost?"

- It's a regular Wednesday.

Michelle...
She's up at 7:00 a.M.

She leaves the house at 7:30.

Madison... I believe she was
actually away that night,

Staying somewhere else.
I was due to go to a job site,

And then, at the last minute,
it got canceled for the day.

I was elated to have
the odd day off

During the week,

Which didn't normally
happen for me.

I was blissfully alone,

Enjoying my day lying
on the couch,

Remote in hand,
coffee in other hand,

Watching clips
of my football team

And just enjoying myself.

Well, as I was watching tv,
I hear a thud

From the first bedroom
adjacent to the living room.

It sounds like something
heavy and metallic

That has fallen on the floor.

And then I'm thinking
maybe the light from above

Fell from the ceiling,

So I put
the remote control down.

I get up.
I walk to the door.

I open it.
I look in.

At first, I don't see
a ceiling light on the floor,

But I do see a radiator pipe

Next to the hole
it was sitting in.

It was a good 18 inches
away from the hole,

And I was thinking,

"how on earth
did this get out of that hole?"

So I get on my hands and knees,

And I can immediately see

That there's some sort
of ambient light down there,

Which is unusual,

Because there shouldn't be
any light down there.

So I get even closer,
to the point where I'm maybe

6 inches, 12 inches,
away from the hole,

And there is a green eyeball

Staring directly up at me
through the hole.

And immediately, I am floored.

I went from curious to terrified

In less than a second.

It is 100% a human eyeball.

The crawlspace
is three feet deep.

There's no animal on earth
that can navigate itself

To the underside of that hole
other than a human being.

So I'm leaning back
on all fours.

I go back to the hole.
I can see light.

I can see where
the source of light is.

It's a single light bulb,
so now he's illuminated,

And it's a caucasian gentleman.

Really scraggly.
Dirty hair.

He's filthy.
He's got dirty pants on,

And he's not responding
back to me.

And I realize that
there's something

Really, really wrong
with this guy.

And he was sort of crawling
on his hands and knees,

And I get up, and I say,

"what are you doing
in my crawlspace?

Who are you?"

And he's still moving slowly
and just creeping out of view,

Into the darkness.

It's completely chilling
and unnerving.

I was thinking that maybe
he was down there,

Stealing metal
or stealing copper.

This guy is up to no good,
and I am now full-on terrified.

I gotta protect myself,
at this point.

I have no idea
what this guy's capable of,

And immediately,
I go for my gun.

It's a recreational kind of gun.

It's just a little fun gun
you shoot out in the woods,

Shoot cans with,
but he doesn't know that.

So I go back to the hole.
I'm just freaking out.

My heart is racing.

I'm physically shaking
at this point.

Looking back, I should have
called the cops sooner,

Because I don't know
if he's armed,

And his behavior suggests that,
whatever it is, it's awful.

So after I look in the hole,

And I see that
he's no longer there,

I call into the hole.
I say, "dude, I got a gun.

"you've gotta get out
from under my house.

I don't want to shoot you."

Now, I can hear things jangle.

He's knocking into pipes
and ductwork,

And I can place him
in the crawlspace

Somewhere below the floor
in the hallway.

And I get up,
and I go to the hallway,

And I call down through
the floor, "dude, I have a gun.

I don't want to shoot you,"
and I discharge.

I hit the lever on the gun,

So that a bullet flies out of
the gun, lands on the floor,

So that he can hear that bullet
clanking above his head.

I wanted him to know
I'm in business.

So he is still moving towards
what is my back deck,

And I'm following.

And the whole time,
I'm taking the butt of my gun

And physically hitting the floor

Above where I think his head is.

I hear now that he's gone
underneath the porch,

And so I open the back door
to the porch from the kitchen,

And I walk out there.

And well, now,
there's floorboards,

And now I can clearly see him

Basically cowering
in the corner.

So I have this guy pinned,

And that's when I see these
two industrial-looking bottles

Clearly say
muriatic acid on them.

And now I know I'm dealing
with something

That is... it's even scarier
than I thought.

At that point,
I pulled out my cell phone,

And that's when I called 911.

And the first thing I say is,

"this is gonna be
the most interesting call

You've had all day.
I guarantee it."

So the operator asked me,
"what is your emergency?"

I said, "I have a person under
my house, in the crawlspace.

I don't know if he has a gun,

But I have him pinned down sort
of in the corner of my house,

But I'm not prepared
to chase him out."

The operator tells me, you know,

"just go to a safe spot
in your house

"and wait for the police.

It shouldn't be
any time at all."

And honestly
it was seven minutes,

They were there exactly,

And out walks a gentleman
and a lady officer.

They said, "I hear you got
a strange problem,"

And I said,
"well, officer, yes I do."

And so I take the officer
down the driveway,

To the side of the house,
and I say,

"he's gotten himself
into the corner of the house,

And that's' where he is."

The gentleman officer then... he
draws his weapon immediately,

Pulls out his flashlight,

Gets on his hands and knees,
and goes right in,

Under the crawlspace,
after this guy.

I mean, at this point,

I'm almost more scared
than I ever was

'cause I'm afraid there's gonna
be a shootout under my house.

And I just get out of the way
and let them handle it,

As best they can.

It takes maybe ten minutes,

And then I see the cop
out of the hole with a guy.

Then that's when I had
the shock of all shocks.

They pull out a black guy.

So I see the officer arresting
this black gentleman,

And I'm wondering, "where is
the scraggly-haired white guy

With the green eye?
Where is he?"

When I called 911, I said,
"caucasian male.

Pants. Dirty,"
and I was like,

"how on earth did I get
this backwards?"

I tell the female officer.
I'm like, "this isn't right."

She's like, "no.
We got the guy."

I'm like, "I don't know.
I don't think so."

And she's like,
"this was the guy

And the only guy
under the house."

- So it was around 10:30,
and I am at work,

And I hear my phone,
that I got a text,

And I notice it's paul.

So I open the text,
and the first thing I see...

That a man is being arrested
at my house.

And his message says, "we had
a phrogger under our house,

But everything's okay now."

I'm immediately thinking
they broke in

And tried to rob us,

So I call him immediately,
you know.

Like, "what the hell
is going on?"

And that's when he told me
about the green eye

Peeping at him through the hole.

When I talked to paul
on the phone,

He reassured me
that he was okay,

But he was pretty upset.

- After I got off the phone
with her,

That's when it really hit me
that this could have went

Very, very badly,
and I feel partly relieved,

But also, I'm feeling,
like, edgy, you know.

I mean shock.
I don't know what it was.

And so I decided to
just go relax and have a beer.

So I walk into the bar,
and I know the bartender.

We're very good friends.

He's like, "paul, you're in
a bit early today,"

And I say, "well, have I got
a story for you.

It's been a busy morning."

I start telling him the story,

And he says, "wait a second.

A white guy and a black guy?"

I said, "well, I thought
I saw a white guy,

But they arrested a black guy."

So the bartender says,

"this sounds exactly
like two guys we had here

Last night that were trouble."
what?

He's like, "yeah, we sure did,"
so then I said to the guy,

You know, "you have security
cameras all over, don't you?"

And he said, "we sure do."

So we're going through
the footage, and sure enough,

There are the two guys,
and I see him.

There's the white guy.

That's the guy
with the green eyeball.

I'm not crazy,
and I didn't make it up.

And I think, "this guy's
probably still under my house."

So, like, after speaking with
the bartender a little bit,

I realize I've gotta call
the police again.

And so I call the police back,

And I say,
"you're not gonna believe this,

But I didn't make
that white guy up."

They knew who I was immediately.

I got right to the detective,

Because he gave me
his card earlier,

And I said, "I'm at the bar
around the corner.

"I've just reviewed
the security camera footage

"with the bartender,

"and this white guy
definitely exists

"and probably is still
under my house.

You guys have to come back."

And I walk back
over to my house.

I meet
the same two officers there,

And... "the guy's
still under there.

You gotta get him out,"
and the officer,

Who was the initial guy
to go under the house...

He's like, "well, I'm not going
back under there."

What? He's like,
"well, you go under there."

And I'm like, "what?"
and then, you know,

The thought of having to sleep
in this house

And not knowing
if he's down there or not

Was just too overwhelming,

And so I get my rifle,

And I go under the house.

I'm shaking all over again,
but I'm determined.

So I go in the crawlspace,

And it's extremely
claustrophobic.

And I mean, my heart is racing.

I don't know where
this guy could be,

And you're just shining
a flashlight into the dark.

So I start on hands and knees
and almost end up on my belly,

Into the corners of the house.

The whole time,
I was calling out,

"dude, if you're under here,
now's your chance.

"I got a rifle in my hand.

"there are two officers right
outside the crawlspace doors.

"there is nowhere for you to go.

"if you are under here,

"you better reveal yourself
and just get out,

"because I don't want
to mistakenly shoot you,

And I assure you these police
do not want to shoot you."

And I did that through
the entirety of the house.

Front deck.
Back deck.

There was insulation
sort of lying around,

And I was afraid maybe
he was hiding under that.

So all in all,

It took me a good half an hour
to clear that space,

To make absolutely 100% sure
this guy wasn't there.

And he wasn't.

- So I am relieved to find out
that paul's fine,

But I thought I should
probably post this

On our neighborhood watch
social media site.

So I put the picture on
and said,

"heads up, everybody.

Make sure your crawlspaces
are locked."

- And so I come out
of the crawlspace.

I am covered in dirt
and cobwebs.

It's in my hair.

The insulation has made me
so incredibly itchy.

It's super hot down there,
so I'm kinda sweaty,

And it's just... it's awful.

I tell the officers
that this guy's...

"he's gotta be somewhere around,

"and maybe you should make it
your business to go find him.

Can't be far,"
and so they leave.

I've had enough for one day.

So when I was speaking
to the bartender

About the muriatic acid,

And that's when he told me...
He was like,

"well, they cook meth
with muriatic acid."

And I was like, "what?"
I'm like, "this is crazy."

Whole time I'm thinking
the guy could be on meth.

I didn't realize he was
making meth under my house.

And now, everything is starting
to make sense

Why these guys were under there,

What they were doing,
what their intent was.

That's when I realized
it is super scary.

They never caught
the white guy, to my knowledge.

Where he went, nobody knows.

- When it was all done,

And we were sitting at home
relaxing that evening,

I felt still anxious
about the situation,

A little violated.

I thought about the horror
of what could have happened.

They could have
blown up our house.

They could have hurt us.

If me and my daughter were
there alone and paul wasn't,

I don't know
what I would have done.

I was relieved, because
if he hadn't been home,

We may have never
discovered these guys.

- I guess the lessons
I learned are,

Number one,
it can happen to anybody.

And just common sense things

That you can and should do
to protect your home.

That day, I bought padlocks
and mechanisms

To lock both hatch doors.

I will never, ever forget
that eyeball.

I never thought,
in a million years,

Anybody would go
into my crawlspace,

Because who the heck
would want to?

But in retrospect,

Knowing that there are
very desperate people out there

Who do very desperate things,

Part of me says they must
have been there before,

Because in order to find
that light switch,

You sort of have to know
where you're going to find it.

And that is truly terrifying

Knowing that I had
a phrogger infestation.

- I heard rustling thumps
underneath our feet.

- Amanda looks at me and goes,

"there's somebody
underneath the floor."

- Are we dreaming?
Is this real?

- Definitely someone
is here now.

Like, the door is locked.

- I told my parents I was
gonna go take a shower.

- And that's when we heard
the blood-curdling scream.

- You can just see the fear
in her face, and she's crying.

- And she screamed,
"there's a man in my closet!"