Phrogging: Hider in My House (2022–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - Bad Santa and Closet Surprise - full transcript
- It was one
of those moments where,
Are we dreaming?
Is this real?
- When I heard that scream,
it scared me.
- Definitely someone
is here now.
Like, the door is locked.
- There's a cat with a sweater.
He's still down there.
- It was just horrific.
It was like she
was being murdered.
- Man found hiding
between a family's walls...
- Intruder secretly living
inside her attic...
- Man slithers out
from under home...
- Make sure
your crawl spaces 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 2019, I'm living with my
At the time fiancé in an
apartment in portland, oregon.
I'm working full-time as
an administrative coordinator
For a local hospital.
Tim's working as a manager
for a french bistro.
- At that point, we were about
a year and a half engaged.
Amanda and I met through
an online dating service.
- And because our schedules
were so completely opposite
And we were both so busy,
it actually took us five months
Of just texting each other
and having conversations
Before we were actually able
to meet in person.
And the day that it happened,
it was completely
Just a spontaneous,
"I'm off work early."
"I'm also off work early.
Let's go to my favorite
dive bar."
We met up there
at 5:30 or so,
And then we ended up
closing down the bar,
Just talking and laughing.
- We hit it off.
We are two peas in a pod.
We're very similar, and she
is my better half for sure.
- We've been house hunting
for probably six months
At this point, with no luck.
And one day, our realtor calls,
and he says,
"boy, do I have gem for you."
He says, "amanda,
"you need to come look
at this house right now.
I've gotten you a showing
before it's on the market."
So of course, I call
out of work an hour early,
Hop in the car,
and I go check out this house.
When we get there
for the first showing,
I'm like, "whoa,"
blown away, you know?
For our budget, this was way
better than I had expected.
It's just got a really homey,
Nice, comfortable feel.
As soon as you walk in,
these beautiful french doors
In the back
just let the light pour in.
The living room is
just right as soon as
You walk in,
flows into the dining room.
The kitchen is
directly off the dining room.
And then you go down a hallway,
And down those hallways
are the three bedrooms.
The bedroom
closest to the front door
Has access to the crawl space.
And in the main hallway
is the bathroom.
Our realtor said,
"you know, amanda,
You have to write
an offer right now."
And unfortunately,
I had to make the call
To put in an offer before tim
could even look at the house,
So he kind of had to trust
my judgment on that one.
As soon as we get the keys,
we decided that we were
Gonna have our wedding shower
at the house.
And then in a few months,
we were planning
On having our wedding
in the backyard.
- We decided to have
the wedding reception
At the house instead
of a separate location
Because we are now millennials
with a mortgage at this point.
So any sort
of thing we can afford
Has now all just been
put into this home.
- We go in,
and in the junk drawer
Are several
of the appliance manuals,
Along with a big bag
full of unlabeled keys
That are not connected
or attached,
Just completely loose
bag of keys.
We basically took a look
at this bag of keys and said,
"hmm, this looks like
a problem for later us,"
And put it back in the drawer
and closed it.
So, thankfully, the shower
went off without a hitch.
We had everybody
who we wanted there.
My sister comes.
My aunt comes, and she was
crocheting an afghan.
And whenever she had
a moment of downtime, you know,
She would just pull it out
and start working on it.
It was a beer-themed
wedding shower...
Cheers and beers
to tim and amanda.
People were playing games
And just having
a really good time.
We had a hot chocolate station
'cause it was a little chilly
in the evenings.
My sister decides
that her gift to us
Will be making her stout
triple chocolate cupcakes.
She really put a lot
of blood, sweat, and tears
Into this beautiful
pastry display
For our shower.
Being able to just have
those big french doors open
And seeing all of the people
that we loved and treasured
But get to show off as well...
Be like, "oh, yeah,
"look at the giant kitchen
that I have now.
"look at how much more
hot sauce I can make.
"look at this room.
We're gonna turn this
into our game room."
It was just
really special to be able
To share that with our family.
The next morning,
we had a wonderful brunch.
And then we drove back
in my sister's car.
We're getting out of the car,
and on our car,
We just see this giant box
Just leaning on the windshield.
And then as I look
a little closer,
There's a bottle next to it
and what looks like a laptop.
We definitely recognized
right off the back that this
Was not anything
that we had ever owned.
And from what we knew
of our guests and our family,
It wasn't anything that
they would have left behind.
And we pick the things
off the car and took them
Into the house, because
we're like, "oh, you know,
"we don't want anybody
passing by
To say, 'ooh, free stuff.'"
We unlock the front doors,
and the dogs are there,
And they're just skittish
kind of,
But they're so excited
to see us.
And as we're walking in,
I point over
to the dining room table,
And I say,
"whose vape is that?"
'cause it's just
this huge, enormous,
Bright red,
chunky piece of equipment.
Nobody that we had invited
uses anything like that.
We notice that things
had been disturbed.
Tables had been scooted over.
Things weren't
where we had left them.
We walk into the kitchen
to look around and we see
Segmented off to the side
are the frosting toppings
From three of the cupcakes
and then a half-eaten bottom
From one of the other cupcakes.
So at that point,
my sister and my aunt
Are still outside,
and I lean through the door,
And I say, "why don't you guys
stay outside?
We think there's
something going on."
My aunt says, "do you want me
to call the police?"
I said, "not yet.
"we're gonna see
what we can see.
"but why don't you guys
take the dogs,
Put them in the car
with the window rolled down?"
So we start looking
a little bit more intently.
And it appeared
that along with the cupcakes,
They had helped themselves
to our coffee.
At this point,
we've definitely established
That at the very least,
someone was here.
And I think, "oh, no,
you know, our tv,
Our video games,"
We had left them here
from the shower.
So I say to tim... I say, "tim,
I'm gonna go check the garage."
I rush into the garage,
and I say,
"tim, the game system's gone."
That was the first thing
I noticed was,
"oh, no,
our system is gone."
And then
as I look a little closer,
I see this giant black tarp,
Which doesn't belong there,
wasn't ours.
- We've checked the living room,
The dining room, the kitchen,
and now we're in the garage.
- At that point, tim and I
regroup in the living room
Because he's clued in
to the fact that we're dealing
With something
more serious than cupcakes.
Tim flips open the box
that had been on our car,
And inside were these knives.
They were probably
supposed to be display use,
'cause they had really pretty
engravings on them.
But they were definitely sharp.
And he took one of them
out of the box.
- We haven't gone
down the hallway yet.
- Tim goes down the hallway,
And when he grabs
the doorknob to our room,
It's locked.
He's standing there
grabbing at the door handle,
Kind of shaking at it
To make sure that it's locked,
And he's got the knife
in one hand.
- And I'm like, "oh,
definitely someone is here now.
Like, the door is locked."
- I see that
the ventilation grates
From our furnace are
Pulled out of the floor
in the main hallway.
And I look directly to the side
As he's jiggling the doorknob,
And I see that our bathroom
is just trashed.
The mirror has been ripped
off the wall.
There's a huge hole.
The electrical sockets have
been yanked out of the wall.
The light bulbs
have been taken out
And set in the bathtub.
Tim kind of just
barks out at me,
"babe, keys!"
So I run down the hallway,
and as I go by the door,
I tell auntie robin
and my sister...
I say, "call the cops.
"there has been a break-in.
He might still be here."
So they back off, and they
start calling the cops.
I run into the kitchen.
I grab this stupid bag of keys
That are completely unlabeled,
And I bring them back,
And I actually hold
the knife while tim is
Trying each key...
Just toss, you know,
Nope, doesn't work...
Throws it on the ground.
Nope, doesn't work...
Throws it on the ground.
Getting increasingly frustrated.
- So I'm banging on the door,
Telling this person to, like,
Make themselves known.
I will let them leave,
But make themselves known,
Because I've got a big bag
of keys right here
From the previous owners.
If you don't make
yourself known by the time
I get in there, I'm gonna
treat it as a threat.
At that point, I don't know,
I was just flying on red mist
And just blind theory
Because of the situation
that I was in.
- Finally he finds
the one that fits.
And he shoves the door open,
takes the knife back.
- This is kind of
when stuff got real.
And there's nobody there.
We see pieces of drywall,
Tipped-over boxes
of our clothing
That have been rummaged
through, and then...
The focal piece are these
giant holes in the wall,
About the size of a person,
That go through
into the next room.
- I see the hole.
I see the window.
I know that's point of entry,
And that's the point of exit.
- We back out of the room.
And tim has checked the closets.
And he steps back
into the hallway,
Moves over into the other room
That had the holes
connected to it,
Checks in there,
and is about to move
Back down the hallway
when I say, "babe, wait.
There's somebody
still here."
- Amanda looks at me, goes,
"there's somebody
underneath the floor."
I'm like, "uh, what?"
She goes, "yeah, there's
somebody underneath the floor.
I can hear them
crawling around down there."
And sure enough,
I had everybody stop.
And we, like, listened.
And I heard thump, thump,
and I'm like, "oh, yeah, nope,
For sure,
there's somebody down there."
- I heard rustling thumps
underneath our feet
Coming from where
all of the vents led.
They're in the crawl space.
There is a person
underneath our floor
Who has destroyed our house,
Our home
that we had just gotten.
I did start stomping
down the hallway,
Saying, "if you're in here,
get out.
Get out of my house."
Tim steps to the front
And makes his way
down the hallway
First into the bedroom,
Which is the one where my
auntie robin had been staying
That has the access
to the crawl space in it.
We hadn't looked
in this bedroom yet.
And as we do,
it's complete chaos.
There's unspooled yarn
all over the place.
The blanket that my auntie
robin had been working on
Was halfway undone.
Her suitcase had been
tipped over and spilled out,
There were pills on the floor
from her medication.
There were also christmas
lights all over the floor,
And the hatch
to the crawl space was askew.
We get the hatch open,
and we see that there are
Christmas lights
attached to the bottom of it.
And as he moves the hatch aside,
We can see that it's also
tied up with yarn as well.
He moves the hatch to the side,
Hands me the knife,
and he drops down.
And I hand him the knife,
and I just wait.
- I went into the crawl space
To see if anybody's down there.
There's two walls
on either side.
One is ventilation and ductwork,
And the other one is, like,
All of the brickwork
that's under the foundation.
And there's about a 25-foot-long
Just hallway, almost,
but you're... I'm crouched down.
- I hear him start moving
underneath the crawl space.
So I grab a large
replica video game sword,
And I'm just waiting
outside the crawl space
Because I figure
if tim flushes this person out,
I'm not gonna let them get away
With destroying this house
that I have worked
So hard on and that we had
just so recently gotten.
- I pull out my phone,
and I turn on my flashlight.
And sure enough,
at the end of this, like,
25-foot extension
Where it becomes
two blind corners,
Standing right in the center,
The only space that I can see,
Is a cat.
A cat in one
of my dog's sweaters.
Now this has become
a joke of, "oh,
It is literally
a cat burglar, great."
I decided I'm not gonna go
any further
In this crawl space,
Because now I know for sure
somebody's down here.
And the only reason
I knew for sure
That somebody was down there
Is because I heard more
movement coming from behind,
Like, where
that blind corner was.
And I'm not about to go
to a blind corner and try
And get in a fight
in this little four-foot
Cleared area.
- So he says,
"there's a cat down there,"
And I just, "what?"
He says, "yeah, it's a cat
"with a sweater.
He's still down there."
And I'm like,
"okay, definitely, that is
The weirdest sentence I have
ever heard in my life."
And we are now going to pile
everything we can think of
On top of here, shut the door,
and call the cops.
- I get out of the crawl space,
I close the hatch,
And then I put, like,
three suitcases on top of it,
'cause now whoever's
down there knows that I know
That they're there.
So I sprint out of the house,
And cara, amanda's sister,
Is on the phone with the police,
Not really knowing
what is actually going on,
And I sprint out
screaming, like,
"just stop.
Someone's here.
"just tell them someone's here.
"someone's broken in the house.
They're here still."
- The police arrive
shortly after,
Once they heard
he was still in the house.
Several units along with a k-9.
The police officers go inside.
We can kind of see them
from the windows
Making sweeps through the house.
And we can hear
the cops yelling, "get out!
Get out! Come out!"
And then after a while,
we can just hear
The distinctive
metal click of handcuffs.
And tim turns to me,
and he goes, "oh,
He really was in there."
- The door swings open,
and they bring out
The man who was in
our crawl space.
And he is really tall,
really dirty,
And wearing my christmas onesie.
- My wife is shorter than I am,
And this man is taller than me,
So it stretched out to no end.
Covered in dirt
from the crawl space.
- It was just infuriating.
It was just another violation,
Because that onesie
had been packed away
Amongst the rest of our clothes
that we had brought over.
And it just showed
how far he had dug in
To get pieces of us.
And then as he was
about to be taken away,
One of the officers
came up to us and said,
"by the way,
The cat that's in your house,
his name is spaghetti."
It was it was one of those
moments where...
Are we dreaming?
Is this real?
You just told me a cat
named spaghetti is in my house.
So, walking through, we
realized that there was just
A lot of damage
that had been done.
Up until this point,
it had been a dream come true.
We had gotten our first house,
We had had an amazing
wedding shower,
And plans were well underway
To have a wonderful wedding
in a few short months.
It was like seeing
all of those things
Just shattered in front of you.
It took all
of the really nice things
That had happened so far
And just made it feel gross.
- It felt like my home
was no longer my home.
It was just this crime scene
that has now occurred
And kind of destroyed any sort
of semblance of attachment
That I could have had
at that point to the house.
It felt like
it was no longer mine.
- So a couple days later,
we find out that the man
Who was in our crawl space
was ryan bishop,
A 38-year-old
from vancouver, washington,
Which is about a 30-minute drive
And across the river
from our house.
- He's arrested and charged
with first-degree burglary
And also criminal mischief.
- Using our home
as his own to the point
Of eating our food
and taking our clothes,
It was just... it was repulsive.
Ryan bishop reached a plea deal
To serve 36 months of probation.
- When the cops
were at the house,
They told us that we needed
to contact animal control
To remove the cat.
Upon contacting animal control,
they told us that they will
Only come and get the cat
if we have the cat in a crate.
- And now we are tasked
with getting a cat
Out of our crawl space.
Tim went into
the crawl space to work
On getting spaghetti out.
- So our first attempt
was with just a big blanket.
And the cat seemed sweet.
Definitely scared
And was definitely
a little skittish.
But I was in the crawl space
with this blanket,
Just kind of sneaking up on her,
Like, doing little cat noises
To try and make sure
that she knows that I'm, like...
I'm not gonna
hurt her or anything.
And I got her
wrapped up in the blanket,
And she started
to struggle a little bit,
Because now
"a stranger is holding me."
So I go over
to the crawl space entrance,
And I start
pushing it up to amanda.
And the cat just got
a little bit loose
From the blanket,
like, wrecked amanda's arm,
And then disappeared
into the crawl space.
We're like, "well, it was
a good first try, I guess."
So at that point,
we kind of cut our losses
Because we know we no longer
have this cat's trust.
So I put a food dish,
Like, right next
to where the hatch is,
And we just kept bringing
cat food and seeing if she was
Going to jump out, and the
cat food was getting depleted.
She was in the crawl space
for, like, two days.
- So I was at work,
and my phone goes off.
And I look at it,
and it's a video of this
Stunning, gorgeous
long-haired cat.
- Hello, spaghetti.
Hello, precious kitten.
- And I message him back...
I said, "oh, my god,
Is that spaghetti?"
Tim says,
"yeah, spaghetti's out.
She's in the garage.
She's so nice."
Later on that day,
I get more messages from tim.
He says, "oh,
I just got a phone call
"from a relative
of ryan bishop's.
"they think that this
is their cat,
And they want
to come pick it up."
I said "okay, awesome.
Excellent.
Yeah, let's get
spaghetti home."
- So the following day,
a family member
Comes to pick up the cat.
And I bring her into the garage
Where we're keeping spaghetti.
Very, very nice woman,
not understanding
What's going on
with her family member.
So I explained it to her.
She was crying, and I actually
felt really bad about it.
And she just goes,
"spaghetti, come here."
And spaghetti
runs right up to her.
Never seen a cat
respond to its name like that.
But immediately
it was like, "all right, yup,
"that's the... that is definitely
the owner of this cat,
For sure."
And that was the last
I saw of spaghetti the cat.
- Things got a lot better
after the wedding.
I think, aside from the crying,
Giving our vows was one
of the easiest things
I've ever done because
it was like,
"in sickness and in health,
"okay, we've already done that.
"for good times or worse times,
Okay, we've already
done that."
No matter what kind of nonsense,
Whether it's a guy living
In our crawl space with his cat
Or anything else life
can throw at us, we got it.
We're good.
We had not one
but two phroggers:
A man and a cat.
- I'm tim brown.
I work
in the oil and gas industry.
In 2016,
I was living
in ardmore, oklahoma,
With my wife, monica,
And my 11-year-old daughter,
presley.
- The neighborhood we moved into
Was tuscan vineyards.
It's a small gated community.
- Very safe neighborhood.
We never locked our doors.
And we all looked out
for one another.
- I knew everyone
in that neighborhood.
A bunch of my friends
lived there.
We would always go and, like,
hang out,
Like, every day after school.
I felt very safe.
- Right when you pull
into the neighborhood,
We're the first lot on the left.
We lived on a three-acre lot.
We had just completed
the building of the home
And have been
living there for one month.
- So this is
the first house that we built,
And we were just
extremely happy to move in
And get acquainted with the
neighbors in the neighborhood.
- We knew this is
gonna be our forever home,
And we put a lot of heart
and soul into this home.
Our home is a tuscan-style
two-story home,
4,800 square feet
with a detached living area.
We had an entrance into
the house through our garage,
But the entry we used all
the time was the kitchen entry.
- Once you walked
into the home, to your left
Took you to a guest room,
an office,
And then upstairs
to a media room.
From the front door
once you went to your right,
You had a dining room,
a kitchen,
Living room,
and then there was a small
Hallway that took you
to presley's room.
- I loved my new room.
I got to paint it
the colors I wanted.
I just loved how big it was,
especially for a 11-year-old.
I had a big closet 'cause I did
competitive cheer and dance.
So I had a bunch of
cheer clothes, dance clothes,
Regular clothes,
so I needed a lot of space.
- Presley's closet is a large
Oversized closet
with clothes racks
On both sides,
And it has a built-in dresser.
- I was also really into makeup,
And at the time,
I had a big vanity.
So I would just sit in there
And do my makeup, like, all day.
I loved everything
about my room.
It was just my birthday.
And I got a lot of presents
that were everywhere.
And I got money, and I put my
money up there on my dresser.
- That morning, I had gone
on the neighborhood watch
Community page,
And I had seen two posts:
One about a robbery
in the neighborhood,
And the police are looking
for a gentlemen that was
Breaking into homes
and is on the run.
And then the second post,
I've seen a young man missing
In ardmore.
And it just said
to keep an eye out.
So I went about my day.
Around, like, 2:50, I picked
up presley from school,
And we came home.
- I'm just coming home from
a business trip, from miami.
I arrived at about
3:00 p.M. That afternoon.
- We had workers
in our front yard.
They were doing landscape work.
- One of our gardeners
said, "mr. Brown,"
And this frantic gardener
Run up to me
with some disturbing news.
Said, "someone runs
in your house,
And he hasn't come out."
So when the gardener
saw a guy running inside,
He was worried about it.
He's worked there
for several days,
And I know he knows who
belongs there, who lives there.
And he's obviously
never seen this guy.
I live in oklahoma.
For one guy, we don't call 911.
So I was definitely confident
that I can handle it on my own.
When I went in
to look for this guy,
I went upstairs first
And looked
all through the attic.
Never saw anything,
so I come down,
And I just went
in every room in the house,
Every closet...
And never saw anything.
After searching everywhere,
I didn't find him.
I was very confident
that he had ran out
One of the other doors.
After that,
my wife and I decided
We were gonna go get groceries.
And my daughter didn't want
to go with us,
So we left her there
and went into town,
Which is approximately
five miles away.
I felt safe leaving her there
Because of the town we live in.
There's just not
a lot of problems there.
- When my parents
were at the store,
I was just hanging out,
playing on my phone.
- So we were back in an hour.
We put the groceries up.
Presley's still playing
in the house.
- They came home,
and I told them
I was gonna go take a shower.
- We went back in the office
And were doing
some more business.
- And that's when we heard
the blood-curdling scream.
When I heard my daughter
scream, it scared me.
I knew something was bad.
- It was just horrific.
It was one of those screams
that you just...
It was like
she was being murdered.
- So I was just
gonna go take shower.
And I was standing, like,
right in front of my closet.
And then all of a sudden,
This guy just, like,
falls over in my closet.
And I'm freaking out.
And he goes,
"don't be scared, little girl."
And I'm screaming,
and I run out.
I was so in shock,
I really didn't even
See what he looked like.
- So I sprinted
out of my office.
And when I come running
into my living room,
My daughter comes
rounding her corner
And just a frantic look.
- You can just see the fear
in her face, and she's crying.
- She didn't stop
or run to my arms.
She run past me.
And she screamed,
"there's a man in my closet."
And so then the hair
on my neck stood up,
And the mood changed.
- I think I was in just shock,
honestly,
And just trying to figure out,
what do you do next?
- And about the time I'm trying
to process all this,
I see a young man
step out around the corner.
He was a tall,
dark-headed, skinny,
In his probably early 20s.
The only thought going
through my head at the moment
Was, "get him."
I didn't know what happened
in my daughter's room.
But I was gonna make sure
that whatever did happen
Would never happen
to anyone else again.
I ran to him
and got ahold of him.
And the fight was on.
- Tim grabbed him and was like,
"what are you doing
in our house?"
And they were fighting.
- As I'm struggling
with the intruder,
I'm hitting him,
And he's saying,
"stop hitting me.
Don't hurt me."
And my wife is listening
to this, and she says...
- "don't hit him.
Just don't hit him."
I said, "I think this is
the missing kid
That they were looking for."
- It took a minute
for it to register,
What she was saying,
Because I was caught up
in my own moment.
So I go through
internal struggle.
I'm sitting here
hitting this kid,
And he's struggling,
and I start thinking,
"oh, my gosh,
am I really hurting someone
That may be
just scared and lost?"
- It was one
of those experiences that,
You know,
you've got so much going on,
You know, between calling 911,
Stopping him
from hurting this kid,
And trying to figure out,
why is this kid
In my daughter's closet?
- So I had him by the wrist.
He wanted me to let go of him,
And he acted like he was gonna
swing at me,
So I slapped him.
And I said, "stop. Calm down."
And he was trying to jerk away
from me,
And he jerked to get loose.
He took off running.
And he ran out.
And we have
a barbwire fence out there,
And this guy
didn't see that fence.
He ran out there,
and he jumped up
And just fell over
and took off running.
That was the last I saw of him.
So after he left,
My wife located my daughter
outside.
The first moment
I saw my daughter,
I hugged her and asked her
if she was okay.
She said yes
and started telling me
Her version of the story.
I wanted to get
the details before she
Told the cops what had happened.
First thing I said,
"did he touch you?"
"no, he didn't touch me."
"did he you see without
clothes on or anything?"
"no."
She told me she had been
in and out of her closet
Multiple times,
especially when she
Was getting ready
for the shower.
And she turned around
and saw him standing.
It scared her.
I mean, it was devastating.
That's when she screamed
real loud.
And she says she threw
her phone at him
And took off out her door.
And he was right behind her.
So I don't know
if he was chasing
Or if he was followed or...
I don't know.
Still to this day, I don't know.
I looked in the closet
afterwards and saw
He had scratches
all over his arms,
So there was blood
up against the wall
Where he had
laid underneath the clothes.
After that, the cops
were pulling into my driveway.
We all got together
with the police
And give our statement.
And the officer
at that point told us
That he had gotten a call
That this young man
and his girlfriend
Were sitting at the end
of a driveway, doing drugs.
And when they ran the plates
and saw that the young man
Had a warrant,
they tried to subdue him,
And he jumped up,
wrestled with the cop,
And took off
running through the woods.
And I guess we're
the first neighborhood
That he come to
coming out of the woods.
- That night, me and my dad,
we went and, like,
Looked around
to see if he, like,
Ran through one of our
friends' backyards.
- And we let the police
know that,
As well as all the neighbors,
Where they would
be on the lookout,
Keep their doors locked.
And we never found him,
so we were pretty confident
That he had made his way
on to another area.
My daughter, she had
several hundred dollars
She got for her birthday
sitting on the dresser,
And we didn't find out until
later that he had stole it.
- He took my birthday money.
How rude.
- And then things got so crazy.
The cops told us this is not
the missing boy
That they're looking for.
So when the cops
tell us who it is,
- The cops told us
this young man who had been
In the closet in our home
Is not the missing boy
that they're looking for
From the neighborhood
social media page.
So the next day,
we hear from our neighbor.
He says, "well,
I was driving down the road
"about 8:00 that morning.
"I see a guy walking,
So I pulled over and asked him
if he needed a ride."
"he was freezing.
He jumped in."
And at that point, our
neighbor text messaged a cop,
And they pull in behind him
and pull him over
And get him.
So when the cops
tell us who it is,
I recognize the name.
Police identify him as race cox.
I know this guy.
This is someone
I grew up with's son.
His aunt works for me,
And his first cousin
Babysat my daughter.
We were very close
to the family.
He did not know
that that was my house.
It was just a random happening.
I was the first house he come to
When he was running,
and it was open.
I had mixed emotions
when I found out
That it was a friend's son.
I was still angry that this
happened to my daughter.
But I was also grateful
that I didn't, you know,
Hurt the young man,
because I had every intention.
- I was really relieved
they got him,
'cause I thought he would
come back and, like, hurt me.
- I know his whole family.
They were sorry it happened.
They weren't upset
That I slapped him around
a little bit,
Because they understood
that it could have been
A bad situation
had it been anybody else.
At the end of the night,
we sit down.
You know, I talk to my daughter,
Make sure that everything
is okay with her.
She's scared to death.
Didn't want to sleep
in her room ever again.
She wanted to move.
And so we understood
And told her, "you can
sleep with us if you want to."
- The first few nights,
I did not...
I did not sleep in my room.
That night, I slept with them,
And then I slept on the couch,
And then I started
going back to my room.
Every night,
I would have my mom,
Like, check my whole room,
My closet,
like, under my clothes.
I'm definitely scared
of closets now,
And I'm scared of the dark.
Every time I go
to a friend's house, like,
If I spend the night, like, I
literally check their closets.
- Just knowing
that you were in the house
With a stranger all day
is a little scary.
And then to know that he was
in my daughter's closet
And that something could have
happened to her
Is nerve-racking.
- Thinking back on it,
It was hard to process.
You know, we knew this was
gonna be our forever home.
And we put a lot of, you know,
heart and soul into this home.
I hate that we
ended up selling it.
We just had some
bad memories there.
I just realized
you just never know
When something so crazy
could happen to you.
You think you live in a safe
neighborhood, a safe town.
And then this happens.
A young woman at her age
should not have to worry about
A strange man in her
bedroom/bathroom closet.
It was a major thing, and it
stayed with us for a bit.
But life happens, so since then,
We decided to let it go.
- My friend said,
"I think maybe
you should call the police.
And I said, "and say what,
I can't find the rest
of my bottle of wine?"
- I am awakened
by noises above me.
I felt that I needed a weapon.
It might be me or them.
- I was perpetually
being watched.
of those moments where,
Are we dreaming?
Is this real?
- When I heard that scream,
it scared me.
- Definitely someone
is here now.
Like, the door is locked.
- There's a cat with a sweater.
He's still down there.
- It was just horrific.
It was like she
was being murdered.
- Man found hiding
between a family's walls...
- Intruder secretly living
inside her attic...
- Man slithers out
from under home...
- Make sure
your crawl spaces 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 2019, I'm living with my
At the time fiancé in an
apartment in portland, oregon.
I'm working full-time as
an administrative coordinator
For a local hospital.
Tim's working as a manager
for a french bistro.
- At that point, we were about
a year and a half engaged.
Amanda and I met through
an online dating service.
- And because our schedules
were so completely opposite
And we were both so busy,
it actually took us five months
Of just texting each other
and having conversations
Before we were actually able
to meet in person.
And the day that it happened,
it was completely
Just a spontaneous,
"I'm off work early."
"I'm also off work early.
Let's go to my favorite
dive bar."
We met up there
at 5:30 or so,
And then we ended up
closing down the bar,
Just talking and laughing.
- We hit it off.
We are two peas in a pod.
We're very similar, and she
is my better half for sure.
- We've been house hunting
for probably six months
At this point, with no luck.
And one day, our realtor calls,
and he says,
"boy, do I have gem for you."
He says, "amanda,
"you need to come look
at this house right now.
I've gotten you a showing
before it's on the market."
So of course, I call
out of work an hour early,
Hop in the car,
and I go check out this house.
When we get there
for the first showing,
I'm like, "whoa,"
blown away, you know?
For our budget, this was way
better than I had expected.
It's just got a really homey,
Nice, comfortable feel.
As soon as you walk in,
these beautiful french doors
In the back
just let the light pour in.
The living room is
just right as soon as
You walk in,
flows into the dining room.
The kitchen is
directly off the dining room.
And then you go down a hallway,
And down those hallways
are the three bedrooms.
The bedroom
closest to the front door
Has access to the crawl space.
And in the main hallway
is the bathroom.
Our realtor said,
"you know, amanda,
You have to write
an offer right now."
And unfortunately,
I had to make the call
To put in an offer before tim
could even look at the house,
So he kind of had to trust
my judgment on that one.
As soon as we get the keys,
we decided that we were
Gonna have our wedding shower
at the house.
And then in a few months,
we were planning
On having our wedding
in the backyard.
- We decided to have
the wedding reception
At the house instead
of a separate location
Because we are now millennials
with a mortgage at this point.
So any sort
of thing we can afford
Has now all just been
put into this home.
- We go in,
and in the junk drawer
Are several
of the appliance manuals,
Along with a big bag
full of unlabeled keys
That are not connected
or attached,
Just completely loose
bag of keys.
We basically took a look
at this bag of keys and said,
"hmm, this looks like
a problem for later us,"
And put it back in the drawer
and closed it.
So, thankfully, the shower
went off without a hitch.
We had everybody
who we wanted there.
My sister comes.
My aunt comes, and she was
crocheting an afghan.
And whenever she had
a moment of downtime, you know,
She would just pull it out
and start working on it.
It was a beer-themed
wedding shower...
Cheers and beers
to tim and amanda.
People were playing games
And just having
a really good time.
We had a hot chocolate station
'cause it was a little chilly
in the evenings.
My sister decides
that her gift to us
Will be making her stout
triple chocolate cupcakes.
She really put a lot
of blood, sweat, and tears
Into this beautiful
pastry display
For our shower.
Being able to just have
those big french doors open
And seeing all of the people
that we loved and treasured
But get to show off as well...
Be like, "oh, yeah,
"look at the giant kitchen
that I have now.
"look at how much more
hot sauce I can make.
"look at this room.
We're gonna turn this
into our game room."
It was just
really special to be able
To share that with our family.
The next morning,
we had a wonderful brunch.
And then we drove back
in my sister's car.
We're getting out of the car,
and on our car,
We just see this giant box
Just leaning on the windshield.
And then as I look
a little closer,
There's a bottle next to it
and what looks like a laptop.
We definitely recognized
right off the back that this
Was not anything
that we had ever owned.
And from what we knew
of our guests and our family,
It wasn't anything that
they would have left behind.
And we pick the things
off the car and took them
Into the house, because
we're like, "oh, you know,
"we don't want anybody
passing by
To say, 'ooh, free stuff.'"
We unlock the front doors,
and the dogs are there,
And they're just skittish
kind of,
But they're so excited
to see us.
And as we're walking in,
I point over
to the dining room table,
And I say,
"whose vape is that?"
'cause it's just
this huge, enormous,
Bright red,
chunky piece of equipment.
Nobody that we had invited
uses anything like that.
We notice that things
had been disturbed.
Tables had been scooted over.
Things weren't
where we had left them.
We walk into the kitchen
to look around and we see
Segmented off to the side
are the frosting toppings
From three of the cupcakes
and then a half-eaten bottom
From one of the other cupcakes.
So at that point,
my sister and my aunt
Are still outside,
and I lean through the door,
And I say, "why don't you guys
stay outside?
We think there's
something going on."
My aunt says, "do you want me
to call the police?"
I said, "not yet.
"we're gonna see
what we can see.
"but why don't you guys
take the dogs,
Put them in the car
with the window rolled down?"
So we start looking
a little bit more intently.
And it appeared
that along with the cupcakes,
They had helped themselves
to our coffee.
At this point,
we've definitely established
That at the very least,
someone was here.
And I think, "oh, no,
you know, our tv,
Our video games,"
We had left them here
from the shower.
So I say to tim... I say, "tim,
I'm gonna go check the garage."
I rush into the garage,
and I say,
"tim, the game system's gone."
That was the first thing
I noticed was,
"oh, no,
our system is gone."
And then
as I look a little closer,
I see this giant black tarp,
Which doesn't belong there,
wasn't ours.
- We've checked the living room,
The dining room, the kitchen,
and now we're in the garage.
- At that point, tim and I
regroup in the living room
Because he's clued in
to the fact that we're dealing
With something
more serious than cupcakes.
Tim flips open the box
that had been on our car,
And inside were these knives.
They were probably
supposed to be display use,
'cause they had really pretty
engravings on them.
But they were definitely sharp.
And he took one of them
out of the box.
- We haven't gone
down the hallway yet.
- Tim goes down the hallway,
And when he grabs
the doorknob to our room,
It's locked.
He's standing there
grabbing at the door handle,
Kind of shaking at it
To make sure that it's locked,
And he's got the knife
in one hand.
- And I'm like, "oh,
definitely someone is here now.
Like, the door is locked."
- I see that
the ventilation grates
From our furnace are
Pulled out of the floor
in the main hallway.
And I look directly to the side
As he's jiggling the doorknob,
And I see that our bathroom
is just trashed.
The mirror has been ripped
off the wall.
There's a huge hole.
The electrical sockets have
been yanked out of the wall.
The light bulbs
have been taken out
And set in the bathtub.
Tim kind of just
barks out at me,
"babe, keys!"
So I run down the hallway,
and as I go by the door,
I tell auntie robin
and my sister...
I say, "call the cops.
"there has been a break-in.
He might still be here."
So they back off, and they
start calling the cops.
I run into the kitchen.
I grab this stupid bag of keys
That are completely unlabeled,
And I bring them back,
And I actually hold
the knife while tim is
Trying each key...
Just toss, you know,
Nope, doesn't work...
Throws it on the ground.
Nope, doesn't work...
Throws it on the ground.
Getting increasingly frustrated.
- So I'm banging on the door,
Telling this person to, like,
Make themselves known.
I will let them leave,
But make themselves known,
Because I've got a big bag
of keys right here
From the previous owners.
If you don't make
yourself known by the time
I get in there, I'm gonna
treat it as a threat.
At that point, I don't know,
I was just flying on red mist
And just blind theory
Because of the situation
that I was in.
- Finally he finds
the one that fits.
And he shoves the door open,
takes the knife back.
- This is kind of
when stuff got real.
And there's nobody there.
We see pieces of drywall,
Tipped-over boxes
of our clothing
That have been rummaged
through, and then...
The focal piece are these
giant holes in the wall,
About the size of a person,
That go through
into the next room.
- I see the hole.
I see the window.
I know that's point of entry,
And that's the point of exit.
- We back out of the room.
And tim has checked the closets.
And he steps back
into the hallway,
Moves over into the other room
That had the holes
connected to it,
Checks in there,
and is about to move
Back down the hallway
when I say, "babe, wait.
There's somebody
still here."
- Amanda looks at me, goes,
"there's somebody
underneath the floor."
I'm like, "uh, what?"
She goes, "yeah, there's
somebody underneath the floor.
I can hear them
crawling around down there."
And sure enough,
I had everybody stop.
And we, like, listened.
And I heard thump, thump,
and I'm like, "oh, yeah, nope,
For sure,
there's somebody down there."
- I heard rustling thumps
underneath our feet
Coming from where
all of the vents led.
They're in the crawl space.
There is a person
underneath our floor
Who has destroyed our house,
Our home
that we had just gotten.
I did start stomping
down the hallway,
Saying, "if you're in here,
get out.
Get out of my house."
Tim steps to the front
And makes his way
down the hallway
First into the bedroom,
Which is the one where my
auntie robin had been staying
That has the access
to the crawl space in it.
We hadn't looked
in this bedroom yet.
And as we do,
it's complete chaos.
There's unspooled yarn
all over the place.
The blanket that my auntie
robin had been working on
Was halfway undone.
Her suitcase had been
tipped over and spilled out,
There were pills on the floor
from her medication.
There were also christmas
lights all over the floor,
And the hatch
to the crawl space was askew.
We get the hatch open,
and we see that there are
Christmas lights
attached to the bottom of it.
And as he moves the hatch aside,
We can see that it's also
tied up with yarn as well.
He moves the hatch to the side,
Hands me the knife,
and he drops down.
And I hand him the knife,
and I just wait.
- I went into the crawl space
To see if anybody's down there.
There's two walls
on either side.
One is ventilation and ductwork,
And the other one is, like,
All of the brickwork
that's under the foundation.
And there's about a 25-foot-long
Just hallway, almost,
but you're... I'm crouched down.
- I hear him start moving
underneath the crawl space.
So I grab a large
replica video game sword,
And I'm just waiting
outside the crawl space
Because I figure
if tim flushes this person out,
I'm not gonna let them get away
With destroying this house
that I have worked
So hard on and that we had
just so recently gotten.
- I pull out my phone,
and I turn on my flashlight.
And sure enough,
at the end of this, like,
25-foot extension
Where it becomes
two blind corners,
Standing right in the center,
The only space that I can see,
Is a cat.
A cat in one
of my dog's sweaters.
Now this has become
a joke of, "oh,
It is literally
a cat burglar, great."
I decided I'm not gonna go
any further
In this crawl space,
Because now I know for sure
somebody's down here.
And the only reason
I knew for sure
That somebody was down there
Is because I heard more
movement coming from behind,
Like, where
that blind corner was.
And I'm not about to go
to a blind corner and try
And get in a fight
in this little four-foot
Cleared area.
- So he says,
"there's a cat down there,"
And I just, "what?"
He says, "yeah, it's a cat
"with a sweater.
He's still down there."
And I'm like,
"okay, definitely, that is
The weirdest sentence I have
ever heard in my life."
And we are now going to pile
everything we can think of
On top of here, shut the door,
and call the cops.
- I get out of the crawl space,
I close the hatch,
And then I put, like,
three suitcases on top of it,
'cause now whoever's
down there knows that I know
That they're there.
So I sprint out of the house,
And cara, amanda's sister,
Is on the phone with the police,
Not really knowing
what is actually going on,
And I sprint out
screaming, like,
"just stop.
Someone's here.
"just tell them someone's here.
"someone's broken in the house.
They're here still."
- The police arrive
shortly after,
Once they heard
he was still in the house.
Several units along with a k-9.
The police officers go inside.
We can kind of see them
from the windows
Making sweeps through the house.
And we can hear
the cops yelling, "get out!
Get out! Come out!"
And then after a while,
we can just hear
The distinctive
metal click of handcuffs.
And tim turns to me,
and he goes, "oh,
He really was in there."
- The door swings open,
and they bring out
The man who was in
our crawl space.
And he is really tall,
really dirty,
And wearing my christmas onesie.
- My wife is shorter than I am,
And this man is taller than me,
So it stretched out to no end.
Covered in dirt
from the crawl space.
- It was just infuriating.
It was just another violation,
Because that onesie
had been packed away
Amongst the rest of our clothes
that we had brought over.
And it just showed
how far he had dug in
To get pieces of us.
And then as he was
about to be taken away,
One of the officers
came up to us and said,
"by the way,
The cat that's in your house,
his name is spaghetti."
It was it was one of those
moments where...
Are we dreaming?
Is this real?
You just told me a cat
named spaghetti is in my house.
So, walking through, we
realized that there was just
A lot of damage
that had been done.
Up until this point,
it had been a dream come true.
We had gotten our first house,
We had had an amazing
wedding shower,
And plans were well underway
To have a wonderful wedding
in a few short months.
It was like seeing
all of those things
Just shattered in front of you.
It took all
of the really nice things
That had happened so far
And just made it feel gross.
- It felt like my home
was no longer my home.
It was just this crime scene
that has now occurred
And kind of destroyed any sort
of semblance of attachment
That I could have had
at that point to the house.
It felt like
it was no longer mine.
- So a couple days later,
we find out that the man
Who was in our crawl space
was ryan bishop,
A 38-year-old
from vancouver, washington,
Which is about a 30-minute drive
And across the river
from our house.
- He's arrested and charged
with first-degree burglary
And also criminal mischief.
- Using our home
as his own to the point
Of eating our food
and taking our clothes,
It was just... it was repulsive.
Ryan bishop reached a plea deal
To serve 36 months of probation.
- When the cops
were at the house,
They told us that we needed
to contact animal control
To remove the cat.
Upon contacting animal control,
they told us that they will
Only come and get the cat
if we have the cat in a crate.
- And now we are tasked
with getting a cat
Out of our crawl space.
Tim went into
the crawl space to work
On getting spaghetti out.
- So our first attempt
was with just a big blanket.
And the cat seemed sweet.
Definitely scared
And was definitely
a little skittish.
But I was in the crawl space
with this blanket,
Just kind of sneaking up on her,
Like, doing little cat noises
To try and make sure
that she knows that I'm, like...
I'm not gonna
hurt her or anything.
And I got her
wrapped up in the blanket,
And she started
to struggle a little bit,
Because now
"a stranger is holding me."
So I go over
to the crawl space entrance,
And I start
pushing it up to amanda.
And the cat just got
a little bit loose
From the blanket,
like, wrecked amanda's arm,
And then disappeared
into the crawl space.
We're like, "well, it was
a good first try, I guess."
So at that point,
we kind of cut our losses
Because we know we no longer
have this cat's trust.
So I put a food dish,
Like, right next
to where the hatch is,
And we just kept bringing
cat food and seeing if she was
Going to jump out, and the
cat food was getting depleted.
She was in the crawl space
for, like, two days.
- So I was at work,
and my phone goes off.
And I look at it,
and it's a video of this
Stunning, gorgeous
long-haired cat.
- Hello, spaghetti.
Hello, precious kitten.
- And I message him back...
I said, "oh, my god,
Is that spaghetti?"
Tim says,
"yeah, spaghetti's out.
She's in the garage.
She's so nice."
Later on that day,
I get more messages from tim.
He says, "oh,
I just got a phone call
"from a relative
of ryan bishop's.
"they think that this
is their cat,
And they want
to come pick it up."
I said "okay, awesome.
Excellent.
Yeah, let's get
spaghetti home."
- So the following day,
a family member
Comes to pick up the cat.
And I bring her into the garage
Where we're keeping spaghetti.
Very, very nice woman,
not understanding
What's going on
with her family member.
So I explained it to her.
She was crying, and I actually
felt really bad about it.
And she just goes,
"spaghetti, come here."
And spaghetti
runs right up to her.
Never seen a cat
respond to its name like that.
But immediately
it was like, "all right, yup,
"that's the... that is definitely
the owner of this cat,
For sure."
And that was the last
I saw of spaghetti the cat.
- Things got a lot better
after the wedding.
I think, aside from the crying,
Giving our vows was one
of the easiest things
I've ever done because
it was like,
"in sickness and in health,
"okay, we've already done that.
"for good times or worse times,
Okay, we've already
done that."
No matter what kind of nonsense,
Whether it's a guy living
In our crawl space with his cat
Or anything else life
can throw at us, we got it.
We're good.
We had not one
but two phroggers:
A man and a cat.
- I'm tim brown.
I work
in the oil and gas industry.
In 2016,
I was living
in ardmore, oklahoma,
With my wife, monica,
And my 11-year-old daughter,
presley.
- The neighborhood we moved into
Was tuscan vineyards.
It's a small gated community.
- Very safe neighborhood.
We never locked our doors.
And we all looked out
for one another.
- I knew everyone
in that neighborhood.
A bunch of my friends
lived there.
We would always go and, like,
hang out,
Like, every day after school.
I felt very safe.
- Right when you pull
into the neighborhood,
We're the first lot on the left.
We lived on a three-acre lot.
We had just completed
the building of the home
And have been
living there for one month.
- So this is
the first house that we built,
And we were just
extremely happy to move in
And get acquainted with the
neighbors in the neighborhood.
- We knew this is
gonna be our forever home,
And we put a lot of heart
and soul into this home.
Our home is a tuscan-style
two-story home,
4,800 square feet
with a detached living area.
We had an entrance into
the house through our garage,
But the entry we used all
the time was the kitchen entry.
- Once you walked
into the home, to your left
Took you to a guest room,
an office,
And then upstairs
to a media room.
From the front door
once you went to your right,
You had a dining room,
a kitchen,
Living room,
and then there was a small
Hallway that took you
to presley's room.
- I loved my new room.
I got to paint it
the colors I wanted.
I just loved how big it was,
especially for a 11-year-old.
I had a big closet 'cause I did
competitive cheer and dance.
So I had a bunch of
cheer clothes, dance clothes,
Regular clothes,
so I needed a lot of space.
- Presley's closet is a large
Oversized closet
with clothes racks
On both sides,
And it has a built-in dresser.
- I was also really into makeup,
And at the time,
I had a big vanity.
So I would just sit in there
And do my makeup, like, all day.
I loved everything
about my room.
It was just my birthday.
And I got a lot of presents
that were everywhere.
And I got money, and I put my
money up there on my dresser.
- That morning, I had gone
on the neighborhood watch
Community page,
And I had seen two posts:
One about a robbery
in the neighborhood,
And the police are looking
for a gentlemen that was
Breaking into homes
and is on the run.
And then the second post,
I've seen a young man missing
In ardmore.
And it just said
to keep an eye out.
So I went about my day.
Around, like, 2:50, I picked
up presley from school,
And we came home.
- I'm just coming home from
a business trip, from miami.
I arrived at about
3:00 p.M. That afternoon.
- We had workers
in our front yard.
They were doing landscape work.
- One of our gardeners
said, "mr. Brown,"
And this frantic gardener
Run up to me
with some disturbing news.
Said, "someone runs
in your house,
And he hasn't come out."
So when the gardener
saw a guy running inside,
He was worried about it.
He's worked there
for several days,
And I know he knows who
belongs there, who lives there.
And he's obviously
never seen this guy.
I live in oklahoma.
For one guy, we don't call 911.
So I was definitely confident
that I can handle it on my own.
When I went in
to look for this guy,
I went upstairs first
And looked
all through the attic.
Never saw anything,
so I come down,
And I just went
in every room in the house,
Every closet...
And never saw anything.
After searching everywhere,
I didn't find him.
I was very confident
that he had ran out
One of the other doors.
After that,
my wife and I decided
We were gonna go get groceries.
And my daughter didn't want
to go with us,
So we left her there
and went into town,
Which is approximately
five miles away.
I felt safe leaving her there
Because of the town we live in.
There's just not
a lot of problems there.
- When my parents
were at the store,
I was just hanging out,
playing on my phone.
- So we were back in an hour.
We put the groceries up.
Presley's still playing
in the house.
- They came home,
and I told them
I was gonna go take a shower.
- We went back in the office
And were doing
some more business.
- And that's when we heard
the blood-curdling scream.
When I heard my daughter
scream, it scared me.
I knew something was bad.
- It was just horrific.
It was one of those screams
that you just...
It was like
she was being murdered.
- So I was just
gonna go take shower.
And I was standing, like,
right in front of my closet.
And then all of a sudden,
This guy just, like,
falls over in my closet.
And I'm freaking out.
And he goes,
"don't be scared, little girl."
And I'm screaming,
and I run out.
I was so in shock,
I really didn't even
See what he looked like.
- So I sprinted
out of my office.
And when I come running
into my living room,
My daughter comes
rounding her corner
And just a frantic look.
- You can just see the fear
in her face, and she's crying.
- She didn't stop
or run to my arms.
She run past me.
And she screamed,
"there's a man in my closet."
And so then the hair
on my neck stood up,
And the mood changed.
- I think I was in just shock,
honestly,
And just trying to figure out,
what do you do next?
- And about the time I'm trying
to process all this,
I see a young man
step out around the corner.
He was a tall,
dark-headed, skinny,
In his probably early 20s.
The only thought going
through my head at the moment
Was, "get him."
I didn't know what happened
in my daughter's room.
But I was gonna make sure
that whatever did happen
Would never happen
to anyone else again.
I ran to him
and got ahold of him.
And the fight was on.
- Tim grabbed him and was like,
"what are you doing
in our house?"
And they were fighting.
- As I'm struggling
with the intruder,
I'm hitting him,
And he's saying,
"stop hitting me.
Don't hurt me."
And my wife is listening
to this, and she says...
- "don't hit him.
Just don't hit him."
I said, "I think this is
the missing kid
That they were looking for."
- It took a minute
for it to register,
What she was saying,
Because I was caught up
in my own moment.
So I go through
internal struggle.
I'm sitting here
hitting this kid,
And he's struggling,
and I start thinking,
"oh, my gosh,
am I really hurting someone
That may be
just scared and lost?"
- It was one
of those experiences that,
You know,
you've got so much going on,
You know, between calling 911,
Stopping him
from hurting this kid,
And trying to figure out,
why is this kid
In my daughter's closet?
- So I had him by the wrist.
He wanted me to let go of him,
And he acted like he was gonna
swing at me,
So I slapped him.
And I said, "stop. Calm down."
And he was trying to jerk away
from me,
And he jerked to get loose.
He took off running.
And he ran out.
And we have
a barbwire fence out there,
And this guy
didn't see that fence.
He ran out there,
and he jumped up
And just fell over
and took off running.
That was the last I saw of him.
So after he left,
My wife located my daughter
outside.
The first moment
I saw my daughter,
I hugged her and asked her
if she was okay.
She said yes
and started telling me
Her version of the story.
I wanted to get
the details before she
Told the cops what had happened.
First thing I said,
"did he touch you?"
"no, he didn't touch me."
"did he you see without
clothes on or anything?"
"no."
She told me she had been
in and out of her closet
Multiple times,
especially when she
Was getting ready
for the shower.
And she turned around
and saw him standing.
It scared her.
I mean, it was devastating.
That's when she screamed
real loud.
And she says she threw
her phone at him
And took off out her door.
And he was right behind her.
So I don't know
if he was chasing
Or if he was followed or...
I don't know.
Still to this day, I don't know.
I looked in the closet
afterwards and saw
He had scratches
all over his arms,
So there was blood
up against the wall
Where he had
laid underneath the clothes.
After that, the cops
were pulling into my driveway.
We all got together
with the police
And give our statement.
And the officer
at that point told us
That he had gotten a call
That this young man
and his girlfriend
Were sitting at the end
of a driveway, doing drugs.
And when they ran the plates
and saw that the young man
Had a warrant,
they tried to subdue him,
And he jumped up,
wrestled with the cop,
And took off
running through the woods.
And I guess we're
the first neighborhood
That he come to
coming out of the woods.
- That night, me and my dad,
we went and, like,
Looked around
to see if he, like,
Ran through one of our
friends' backyards.
- And we let the police
know that,
As well as all the neighbors,
Where they would
be on the lookout,
Keep their doors locked.
And we never found him,
so we were pretty confident
That he had made his way
on to another area.
My daughter, she had
several hundred dollars
She got for her birthday
sitting on the dresser,
And we didn't find out until
later that he had stole it.
- He took my birthday money.
How rude.
- And then things got so crazy.
The cops told us this is not
the missing boy
That they're looking for.
So when the cops
tell us who it is,
- The cops told us
this young man who had been
In the closet in our home
Is not the missing boy
that they're looking for
From the neighborhood
social media page.
So the next day,
we hear from our neighbor.
He says, "well,
I was driving down the road
"about 8:00 that morning.
"I see a guy walking,
So I pulled over and asked him
if he needed a ride."
"he was freezing.
He jumped in."
And at that point, our
neighbor text messaged a cop,
And they pull in behind him
and pull him over
And get him.
So when the cops
tell us who it is,
I recognize the name.
Police identify him as race cox.
I know this guy.
This is someone
I grew up with's son.
His aunt works for me,
And his first cousin
Babysat my daughter.
We were very close
to the family.
He did not know
that that was my house.
It was just a random happening.
I was the first house he come to
When he was running,
and it was open.
I had mixed emotions
when I found out
That it was a friend's son.
I was still angry that this
happened to my daughter.
But I was also grateful
that I didn't, you know,
Hurt the young man,
because I had every intention.
- I was really relieved
they got him,
'cause I thought he would
come back and, like, hurt me.
- I know his whole family.
They were sorry it happened.
They weren't upset
That I slapped him around
a little bit,
Because they understood
that it could have been
A bad situation
had it been anybody else.
At the end of the night,
we sit down.
You know, I talk to my daughter,
Make sure that everything
is okay with her.
She's scared to death.
Didn't want to sleep
in her room ever again.
She wanted to move.
And so we understood
And told her, "you can
sleep with us if you want to."
- The first few nights,
I did not...
I did not sleep in my room.
That night, I slept with them,
And then I slept on the couch,
And then I started
going back to my room.
Every night,
I would have my mom,
Like, check my whole room,
My closet,
like, under my clothes.
I'm definitely scared
of closets now,
And I'm scared of the dark.
Every time I go
to a friend's house, like,
If I spend the night, like, I
literally check their closets.
- Just knowing
that you were in the house
With a stranger all day
is a little scary.
And then to know that he was
in my daughter's closet
And that something could have
happened to her
Is nerve-racking.
- Thinking back on it,
It was hard to process.
You know, we knew this was
gonna be our forever home.
And we put a lot of, you know,
heart and soul into this home.
I hate that we
ended up selling it.
We just had some
bad memories there.
I just realized
you just never know
When something so crazy
could happen to you.
You think you live in a safe
neighborhood, a safe town.
And then this happens.
A young woman at her age
should not have to worry about
A strange man in her
bedroom/bathroom closet.
It was a major thing, and it
stayed with us for a bit.
But life happens, so since then,
We decided to let it go.
- My friend said,
"I think maybe
you should call the police.
And I said, "and say what,
I can't find the rest
of my bottle of wine?"
- I am awakened
by noises above me.
I felt that I needed a weapon.
It might be me or them.
- I was perpetually
being watched.