A woman ended up making a horrifying discovery after becoming convinced she could hear noises coming from her attic.
Asking to be identified only as 'Tracy' the 41-year-old mother of five from Rock Hill, South Carolina, revealed how the ordeal unfolded.
She first began noticing strange noises which appeared to be coming from her attic, before noticing nails were coming through the ceiling.
While most people would chalk the noises up to the normal creaks and groans of a house, or some critters that had made their way into the dwelling, Tracy knew something was very wrong.
She told ABC News in 2012 when the strange noises began that she'd sent her two oldest sons up to check it out but they'd found nothing unusual.
Tracy told the outlet: "The kids were saying, 'You're getting old. You're hearing things. You're crazy.'"
However, despite her sons' assurances that there was nothing in the attic, the noises kept happening - and she even found that plaster had fallen from the ceiling onto her bed and laptop while she was using it that evening.
She added: "I kept hearing a bumpin', thumpin' noise. It was either something or somebody was in the attic. I know the sounds of my home."
Things came to a head at around 2.30AM when Tracy was woken up to a loud noise in the attic and sent her nephew up to investigate.
When he walked to the far end of the attic, where a light had been out, he made a terrifying discovery.
There, he found Tracy's ex-boyfriend had been living in her attic for several days.
The man, who wasn't identified in a police report, had just completed a 90-day jail sentence for stealing her truck.
She revealed that she had exchanged letters with her ex, whom she'd separated from 12 years earlier, while he'd been in prison but had no plans to get back together with him despite his insistence that he'd changed.
It was discovered that the unnamed man had allegedly been sleeping in the heating unit in the attic for up to two weeks since his release from prison, and had been urinating and defecating in cups to avoid being discovered.
It was not clear how he'd managed to get access to the attic, as the only way to get in it was through a door inside the home.
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Reports also suggested that he'd also rigged the ceiling vents so that he could look down on his ex from his hiding spot in the attic.
Tracy told ABC News at the time: "We are still figuring out how he got in the house. I want him charged. I feel violated."
Unfortunately, her ex had fled the scene on foot before police arrived and was not apprehended.
It is not known if the man was ever caught or charged for the crime.