Wash. woman learns of unwanted visitor under her house

By Kristen Drew Published: Jan 8, 2013 at 1:08 PM PDT
Wash. woman learns of unwanted visitor under her house »Play Video

YELM, Wash. -- A Yelm woman recently got the surprise of her life when she learned that a stranger was living underneath her house.

Velma Kellen said she recently bought a new furnace, so she was a little surprised when her house wasn't warming up. She called a repairman, who gave Kellen an odd bit of news.

"He says, 'Well, I've got good news and bad news. I've got your ducts fixed, but somebody's been living under your house,'" Kellen said.

The repairman came out of a crawl space under the house carrying an empty beer can. He said there were more cans and a liquor bottle underneath the house.

"I was just amazed when he came in and told me," Kellen said. "I couldn't believe it. I thought, golly sakes."

Kellen has no idea how long the person was living in the crawl space, but thinks the unwanted guest was there to get out of the cold.

"They cut the duct so that the warm air was blowing down on them," she said. "They were getting all my warm air from the front of the house."

The 73-year-old also believes that the person smoked marijuana because she said she often smelled smoke lingering throughout her house.

Oddly, the squatter also fooled Kellen's three dogs. Kellen said the dogs never barked at night to make her think anything was wrong.

Kellen called her insurance company and had to pay $500 to have the duct fixed. Yelm's police chief said in his 18-years with the department, he's never heard of anything like what Kellen experienced.