Homeless woman caught living in closet for a year

Praxius

Mass'Debater
Dec 18, 2007
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Halifax, NS & Melbourne, VIC
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe...0530/Japanese_woman_080530/20080530?hub=World

TOKYO -- A homeless woman who sneaked into a man's house and lived undetected in his closet for a year was arrested in Japan after he became suspicious when food mysteriously began disappearing.

Police found the 58-year-old woman Thursday hiding in the top compartment of the man's closet and arrested her for trespassing, police spokesperson Hiroki Itakura from southern Kasuya town said Friday.

The resident of the home installed security cameras that transmitted images to his mobile phone after becoming puzzled by food disappearing from his kitchen over the past several months.

One of the cameras captured someone moving inside his home Thursday after he had left, and he called police believing it was a burglar. However, when they arrived they found the door locked and all windows closed.

"We searched the house ... checking everywhere someone could possibly hide," Itakura said. "When we slid open the shelf closet, there she was, nervously curled up on her side."

The woman told police she had no place to live and first sneaked into the man's house about a year ago when he left it unlocked.

She had moved a mattress into the small closet space and even took showers, Itakura said, calling the woman "neat and clean."
 

Nuggler

kind and gentle
Feb 27, 2006
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Backwater, Ontario.
:-( So she would be one of the "closet" homeless??

Too sad, really. But the guy had a built in housekeeper. Shoulda left well enough alone.
She wasn't taking up a whole lot of room, and was very quiet.
Just cost a bit of food and water.
Hell, person could do worse.......

8O
 

Praxius

Mass'Debater
Dec 18, 2007
10,609
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Halifax, NS & Melbourne, VIC
:-( So she would be one of the "closet" homeless??

Too sad, really. But the guy had a built in housekeeper. Shoulda left well enough alone.
She wasn't taking up a whole lot of room, and was very quiet.
Just cost a bit of food and water.
Hell, person could do worse.......

8O

Hey if I came home and my bag of Doritos was eating, I'd be a little pissed too.
 

Vereya

Council Member
Apr 20, 2006
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Tula
The man certainly wasn't a neat freak. Can't imagine not knowing for a whole year that someone is living in my closet. :lol:
 

karrie

OogedyBoogedy
Jan 6, 2007
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We had our camper broken into once. They slept there, ate some canned stew, and stole all our camping coats.

We felt guilty frankly. Food and warm coats, a decent 'home' for someone, just sitting there waiting for our weekend whim to go 'roughing' it.

Frankly, if I ever found out something like this had been going on, I'd be likely to rent the room to the woman in return for housekeeping. You clearly have more room than you need if someone can squat ANYwhere in your home for more than, let's call it a week, without you noticing something like a mattress being moved there.
 

FUBAR

Electoral Member
May 14, 2007
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We had the same problem once, I still miss that bed she broke and am nervous when we have porridge for breakfast......
 
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dancing-loon

House Member
Oct 8, 2007
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:-( So she would be one of the "closet" homeless??

Too sad, really. But the guy had a built in housekeeper. Shoulda left well enough alone.
She wasn't taking up a whole lot of room, and was very quiet.
Just cost a bit of food and water.
Hell, person could do worse.......

8O
Good memory, Nuggler! Good humor, too!:lol:
 

dancing-loon

House Member
Oct 8, 2007
2,739
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The man certainly wasn't a neat freak. Can't imagine not knowing for a whole year that someone is living in my closet. :lol:
He could have been just an ordinary guy, minding his usual beeswax. If his house is big enough, it is not impossible for someone small and quiet to hide somewhere undetected. In the earlier years that I lived in my house, which is big and has an attic as well as a basement, I often heard noise in the middle of the night, waking up to stairs creaking, a loose hallway board banging and the general feeling someone was in the house!! A few times I was so sure there was another person in the house, I'd call my daughter over and we went strategicly with flashlights through the entire house. Never found someone, or the source of the noise.

It could have been a ghost, because the house is 130 plus years old! Or it could have been raccoons in the attic, which I later found out and trapped the grandfather monster.

Even now, a small Japanese woman could easily hide in my house without me noticing, unless she would take foodstuff from the fridge or pantry.
 

shadowshiv

Dark Overlord
May 29, 2007
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We had our camper broken into once. They slept there, ate some canned stew, and stole all our camping coats.

We felt guilty frankly. Food and warm coats, a decent 'home' for someone, just sitting there waiting for our weekend whim to go 'roughing' it.

Frankly, if I ever found out something like this had been going on, I'd be likely to rent the room to the woman in return for housekeeping. You clearly have more room than you need if someone can squat ANYwhere in your home for more than, let's call it a week, without you noticing something like a mattress being moved there.

I am not sure if I would feel guilty if that happened to me. It could have been kids, someone on the run from the law(like the guy who murdered his children in BC), or someone looking for money or items to sell.