A present‑day fright that left one family spooked — and stunned
Woah! A present‑day development sees an Arkansas college professor and his partner rightfully spooked after discovering a drifting grifter stranger had been secretly living in their basement.
The alert moment happened when the intruder finally got sloppy — taking too much food, moving chairs around, and leaving behind subtle signs that something was off.
Harding University professor Dutch Hoge first noticed the strange clues. He and his wife realized:
- Chairs had been moved
- Food was disappearing
- And the house just felt… wrong
They shared their concerns with their daughter Cherise and son‑in‑law Mark — who immediately knew something wasn’t adding up.
“I think they thought they were both going crazy,” Cherise said. “That doesn’t happen at the same time suddenly.”
While Dutch was at church, Cherise, Mark, and Dutch’s wife Sharon began searching the house. Sharon went in first.
And then — the moment everything snapped into focus.
“She went further into the closet, and that’s when I saw her eyes get really big,” Cherise recalled. “She says, there’s someone in there. I see their leg or their jeans or something.”
Inside the storage closet under the stairs was a homeless man who had entered through the home’s crawl space. He’d been there:
- Likely one night in the crawl space
- Then moved into the basement
- Stayed through Tuesday morning to Wednesday evening
- Built a makeshift bed deep in a storage closet
Dutch calmly asked the man to step outside and waited with him until police arrived.
Despite the shock, the family expressed empathy over anger.
“We’re not angry at this man. I feel sorry for him,” Dutch said. “It seemed like he was just trying to get out of the elements, trying to survive.”
They’re simply grateful they uncovered the truth — before it went on much longer.
