SOUTH CAROLINA -- A mother of five says her children are afraid to sleep in their own rooms after finding a man living in the attic of their Rock Hill, South Carolina home.
She asked not to be identified by name because the man who was living in her attic is still on the loose.
The attic intruder was discovered after she heard a thump coming from the ceiling Saturday night.
"Then all the nails just popped out of the ceiling over my bed. Like 'bing, bing, bing,'" she said.
Thinking it was an animal, she asked her older sons and adult nephew to check out what was happening upstairs.
"They found a man. He had packed all the old coats and jackets into the heating unit and was sleeping in the heating unit," she said, adding that the man ran downstairs and out of the house before police could get there.
Officers found several drink cups filled with feces and urine in the attic.
The man also appeared to have rigged the ceiling vents so he could see into the woman's bedroom.
The only entrance to the attic is inside the home, in the hall that connects her children's bedrooms.
Officers are trying to determine just how the suspect was able to get inside the house to go up in the attic each day.
The woman recognized the person living in her attic as a man she'd hired to remodel her home after a house fire last year.
He was convicted of stealing her truck earlier this year, and finished serving that sentence and was released from jail two weeks ago.
(Information courtesy NBC News)
