Man notices food mysteriously missing from his kitchen. Then the police check his closet and find the explanation ‘curled up on her side’

In 2008, a bizarre case out of Kasuya, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, left a man stunned. The man discovered that food in his house was disappearing, but it wasn’t because of a typical burglar: Instead, officers found a 58-year-old woman named Tatsuko Horikawa secretly living inside a small compartment in his closet.

After several items in his refrigerator slowly vanished, the 57-year-old man, who has never been identified in the press, installed a security camera in his home that alerted his phone when it detected motion. According to The Guardian, when he reviewed the footage, he saw someone walking around his apartment while he was out, and naturally, he immediately called the police.

A local police spokesman, Hiroki Itakura, described the awkward and shocking moment when responding officers searched the premises: “We searched the house … checking everywhere someone could possibly hide. When we slid open the shelf closet, there she was, nervously curled up on her side.”

At least she was “neat and clean”

Inside that small closet compartment, Horikawa had made herself a makeshift home. According to investigators, she brought in a thin mattress and several plastic water bottles to survive. She emerged to steal food from the refrigerator. When questioned, “She told police that she had nowhere to live,” Ikatura said.

According to police, Horikawa first snuck into the house about a year earlier, when the man allegedly left his front door unlocked. Officer Itakura also described her as being “neat and clean,” despite the unconventional nature of her hiding place. She reportedly used the shower in the home and lived in the space for about a year off and on.

According to reports, her home was what’s called a “built-in bedding cupboard,” or a typical Japanese Oshiire, a flat storage space for futons and bedding, making it plausible but uncomfortable for a person to lie down. Meanwhile, the man reportedly lived alone, explaining why no one else noticed his unwelcome guest.

What is “phrogging?”

The bizarre act of a stranger secretly living in someone else’s home, as seen in the Horikawa case, is commonly referred to as phrogging. This term describes a form of trespassing where the intruder, or “phrogger,” lives stealthily within the property, often for an extended period, without the knowledge or consent of the legal residents, much like a frog “hopping” from one place to another. Phroggers typically enter through unlocked doors or windows and hide in unconventional spaces.

Police arrested Horikawa on suspicion of trespassing. Many wondered how she had managed to remain undetected for so long, entering and leaving quietly, and keeping the storage compartment so clean. Reports say that the man, who has never been identified in the press, could have had just one of many closets she “closet-surfed” in a unique — and alarming — living situation.