An Adelaide grandmother has been left utterly traumatised after uncovering a stranger had been secretly living in the ceiling of her Housing Trust home for months.
The elderly woman, who lives alone and has chosen to remain anonymous for her safety, initially dismissed the unsettling noises above her head as the antics of a possum.
But a series of increasingly bizarre occurrences slowly chipped away at her peace of mind.
Even her cat, a usually placid companion, began exhibiting distress, constantly staring upwards.
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“Lots of different things or items went missing, but I thought, no, maybe I’ve misplaced them,” the pensioner told 7NEWS.
“The toilet seat was up on several occasions and there was fresh contents in the toilet.”
The terrifying truth exploded one morning with a “humungous bang” from the ceiling, immediately followed by the distinct sound of a man swearing.
Police are on the hunt for a man who was living in the roof of a Grandmothers housing trust home. Picture 7NEWS
“It sounded like somebody had almost fallen through the roof,” she recounted.
Overwhelmed by fear, she froze, too petrified to call the police, convinced that any noise from her would provoke the unseen intruder.
A subsequent, harrowing inspection of her roof cavity confirmed her darkest fears.
“I got quite upset and I thought no, this is not right,” she said.
“There’s been all sorts of things (found) a bed, tins of food, crockery, cutlery, shoes and drugs.”
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The man is believed to have been living in the roof for months. Picture 7NEWS
The grandmother believes the individual gained access through damaged roof tiles, a critical issue she claims to have reported to the SA Housing Trust “countless times” without any action.
“Nobody was ever sent out,” she lamented, expressing profound frustration at feeling ignored and dismissed.
News Corp understands the alleged squatter remains at large, with an SA Police spokesperson confirming that investigations are ongoing.
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Police believes the intruder gained access through damaged roof tiles. Picture 7NEWS
The story has ignited a firestorm of discussion online, with many expressing profound sympathy for the grandmother’s ordeal, while others found a darkly humorous, albeit unsettling, angle to the bizarre situation.
“That poor woman, if it was me, I’d wanna move out, hope they caught him,” one commenter wrote.
Another quipped, “I am pretty sure he got caught because he left the toilet seat up. You can’t fool a woman with that.”
This unsettling event echoes a similar situation in the United States earlier this year, where a couple in Searcy, Arkansas, discovered a stranger living beneath their home.
Security footage showed Preston Landis creeping around the family’s home without a shirt on. Source: Supplied/ Hoggatt family
Dutch and Sharon Hoggatt noticed vanishing food, shifted furniture, and missing work shoes, leading them to believe they were imagining things.
Their son-in-law eventually discovered a man, identified as Preston Landis, hiding in their basement.
Landis was later arrested and charged with residential burglary and theft of property, with the family speculating he initially sought shelter from severe weather.
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