An Arkansas couple spent days wondering why food kept disappearing, furniture kept shifting around the house and doors were mysteriously locking on their own.
Then they discovered a stranger living in their basement.
Police said Dutch and Sharon Hoggatt uncovered the bizarre setup inside their Searcy home on April 29 after weeks of increasingly unsettling incidents left the family convinced something was seriously wrong.
The couple first noticed small items vanishing from around the house.
Shoes disappeared. Chairs ended up in different places. Food they swore they hadn’t touched suddenly vanished from the kitchen.
“I came in looking for my work shoes. I always leave them by the back door,” Hoggatt told KTHV. “My work shoes were gone.”
Hoggatt initially assumed someone in the house had accidentally moved them.
“I asked my wife if she had thrown them away, and she had not,” he said.
🗳️Turning Point PAC is deploying the largest ballot-chasing operation in U.S. History to secure key battleground states. 🗳️ Keep our grassroots army in the field and protect future victories! ➡️➡️➡️ DONATE TODAY!!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Over time, the strange incidents started piling up. The family said donuts and apples were mysteriously eaten while nobody was home.
Deadbolts appeared locked even though neither homeowner remembered touching them. Furniture inside the house seemed to shift around on its own.
The couple eventually became so unnerved they started questioning whether they were imagining things.
Their daughter, Cherisse, and son-in-law, Mark Gregory, later decided to help search the property after Hoggatt left for church.
Gregory said he armed himself before entering the home because nobody knew what they were walking into.
“We stopped by our house. I grabbed my bat and a gun just in case,” Gregory said. “We didn’t know what to expect.”
The search eventually led the family into a basement storage area. That’s when Sharon noticed a human leg sticking out from beneath the stairs.
“I could see that she was freaked out, so they backed out of the room, and I went in,” Gregory recalled.
Police said the family discovered 41-year-old Preston Landis hiding inside a makeshift living space he had allegedly created in the basement.
Authorities believe Landis initially crawled into the home through a crawl space entrance on April 27 while trying to escape severe weather.
Investigators later determined he had moved deeper into the basement the following day.
The family alleged Landis built a temporary bed inside a storage closet and quietly stayed there for days while sneaking food and clothing from the house.
Surveillance footage captured the shirtless intruder wandering through the family’s home late at night while everyone slept upstairs.
Police said Sharon immediately called 911 while family members attempted to get Landis to leave the basement.
At first, investigators said the man refused to respond. Gregory eventually started striking the basement door with a baseball bat while yelling for him to come out.
Landis finally emerged and ran from the house without physically hurting anyone.
The family later told investigators the man had visible marks across his face from barbed wire injuries.
Gregory remained outside speaking with Landis until White County sheriff’s deputies arrived.
Despite the fear and confusion surrounding the discovery, the family said they never believed Landis intended to seriously harm them.
“I don’t think he was trying to be a bad guy,” Gregory said. “There was plenty of opportunities where he could have taken things. It seemed like he was just trying to get out of the elements, trying to survive.”
Cherisse said Landis apologized before deputies led him away from the property.
“He did say, ‘Tell your folks that I’m really sorry and they seem like really nice people,’” she said.
The Hoggatts later told reporters the man stole clothing and food but did not take anything especially valuable.
“We’re not angry at this man,” Hoggatt said. “I feel sorry for the man.”
Landis was arrested and charged with residential burglary and theft of property. His bond was set at $15,000.
The Arkansas case is one of several disturbing incidents involving people secretly living inside or beneath occupied homes.
Last year in Clackamas County, Oregon, deputies discovered a man allegedly living inside the crawlspace beneath a condominium after witnesses spotted suspicious activity near the building late at night.
Investigators said neighbors noticed a man park outside the condo complex before walking behind the building toward a crawlspace entrance.
Witnesses also reported seeing light coming from inside the crawlspace, when there should have been none.
Deputies responding to the scene found a damaged crawlspace door along with an extension cord going through a vent.
The condo owner told investigators nobody should have been inside.
The owner also admitted to previously hearing unexplained noises beneath the property.
After deputies forced their way into the crawlspace, they discovered 40-year-old Beniamin Bucur allegedly living inside.
Authorities said the area had been transformed into a hidden living quarters complete with lights, televisions, chargers and a bed powered through the complex’s electrical system.
Deputies also recovered a pipe containing residue that later tested positive for methamphetamine.
Investigators concluded that Bucur had been secretly living beneath the building for a long time.
He was later booked into the Clackamas County Jail on burglary and drug charges.
A similar case went viral in 2023 after a California woman discovered a stranger living underneath her home.
Lake Elsinore resident Ashly Guardino initially believed strange noises under the property were tied to repair work being done by her landlord.
Instead, she found what she described as a “f–king dirty ass arm” reaching out from beneath the house.
“There is a whole ass man living here for months … living underneath the house,” Guardino said in a TikTok video viewed millions of times.
@ashlyguardino
Guardino later said police initially appeared skeptical when officers arrived.
Once authorities confirmed someone was hiding underneath the residence, officers surrounded the crawlspace and repeatedly ordered the man to come out.
“They threatened [him with] dogs and guns because he [wasn’t] responding,” Guardino said. “He was just quiet.”
After a roughly 30-minute standoff, officers removed a shirtless man covered in dirt from beneath the home and placed him under arrest.
Guardino later claimed the suspect had previously been caught hiding beneath another nearby residence before eventually moving underneath her house.
