A 31-year-old man is accused of secretly living in his ex-girlfriend’s attic for two weeks without her knowledge and despite knowing that court has ordered him not to contact her, as he charged for abusing her before, the police in Pittsburgh said.
The woman, whose name is not disclosed, had noticed strange signs, and sound in her house and she shares with her daughter in Pittsburgh, USA.
She said that before Saturday, she had noticed suspicious things at her home, including a blanket, and found the toilet seat up.
She told TV station WPXI: “But I can’t call the police and say, ‘There’s a blanket in my basement’.”
On one Saturday morning, she went upstairs after hearing some sounds which she believed was caused by her cat.
She says she was shocked to find Cary Cocuzzi, 31, standing there.
He grabbed her face but she successfully breaks her grip and makes her free and ran outside to call for help from neighbors who called 911, she told WPXI.
Police searched the house and found Cocuzzi hiding.
When officers arrived, they found Cocuzzi hiding under clothing on the second floor, the criminal complaint said.
She explained: “Nobody in my home uses the bathroom that way. And I didn’t have any visitors, so I just thought, ‘Gosh, is this guy in my house? This is so strange.’
“I had an intuition about it, but I ignored it. I brushed it aside. I didn’t want to seem paranoid… you know, you never think this will happen to you, but I should have trusted my instinct because I was right.”
She told the TV station that ‘she is grateful her daughters weren’t home during the confrontation’.
Cocuzzi told the police, ‘He was homeless and had been sneaking in and out of his girlfriend’s house for about two weeks.’
Cocuzzi now faces burglary charges.