A 93-year-old Los Angeles woman reportedly discovered to her horror that the strange noises she had been hearing in her floor for months were none other than those of a man living in her crawl space, causing commotion in the neighborhood.
“It was usually late at night and we just thought it was due to animals that were under the house, opossums, raccoons, whatever,” the mother’s son-in-law said Friday. owner, Ricardo Silva, to NBC Los Angeles.
For several weeks, his 93-year-old mother-in-law had reported hearing strange sounds coming from the floor of her home in El Sereno, California, according to the American media.
Isaac Betancourt, 27, was arrested after being found living naked in the crawlspace of a 93-year-old woman’s home in #ElSereno, #California
The disturbing discovery occurred on November 8, when the woman’s family, having heard strange noises for months, called police after the… pic.twitter.com/zhXyzQzAkB
— True Crime Updates (@TrueCrimeUpdat) November 10, 2024
Except, last Thursday, the “knocking”-like noises reportedly became much louder, until they began to sort of respond to the footsteps of the household’s residents as they walked.
“Something is wrong,” Ricardo Silva’s wife would have whispered, before deciding to call the police authorities to check what was in the floor, according to the American media.
That’s when officers allegedly discovered a naked man, identified as Issac Betancourt, 27, staying in the crawl space, NBC Los Angeles continued.
For hours, the police tried multiple strategies to drag him out of his hiding place, where he could have spent the last six months, according to the family.
“He refused to leave. He was not afraid of the dogs and the first two attempts at tear gas did not make him come out,” the son-in-law described to the American media.
The man was finally extricated from his hiding place, not without causing unrest in the neighborhood, and especially among the owner of the premises who will have to be rehoused while waiting for the tear gas to dissipate.
According to NBC Los Angeles, the man used one of three holes leading into the crawl space, no more than two feet high, to slide under the house. These three attacks will be condemned to prevent the situation from repeating itself, the family said.
For his part, the intruder would have been handcuffed for his break-in.
