When you hear noises around your house at night, your first assumption is probably that it’s wind, some noisy neighbors, or even a ghost. Maybe not a man living in the crawl space. Unfortunately for the woman in this viral TikTok, that was exactly the case.
Ashly Guardino whipped out her camera after she heard noises outside early in the morning and went outside to find an arm grabbing around from under her house. In the video, she tells her audience that banging woke her up and she thought it might be her landlord doing work on the house. When she went outside she saw a hand moving in the grass and found a man hanging out in her crawl space.
When the man wouldn’t leave after she yelled at him and poked him with a broom, Ashly called the police. They managed to get him to come out from under the house and arrest him. Commenters were horrified saying they would never sleep again and offering words of encouragement for Ashly and her family to find peace in their home.
Other people really empathized with the man that was staying under the house. Several noted how sad and telling it is that breaking into someone’s crawl space was the squatter’s best option. One commenter even joked, “TBH in this financial climate… I’d ask bro for half of the rent and just let him stay.” In fact, this may not have been the worst plan. According to The New York Times, the average rent-to-income ratio across the United States is continuing to climb. This means that the average American spends 30% of their income on housing. Because of this (and a myriad of other factors) more than 500 thousand Americans are completely unhoused and have to resort to living on streets, dumpsters, and crawl spaces.
Ashly followed up in a later video to tell her audience that the man living in her crawl space has actually been previously arrested after violating his parole and living in two other crawl spaces. She shared that she thought he may have been living there for several months, since the screen on the crawl space kept being removed and they had been hearing sounds for a while.
On the bright side, the family did find something a little more welcome under their house. After the crawl space was boarded up, Ashly heard meowing coming from under the house. She managed to rescue a tiny kitten, which she and her family are taking care of until it finds a forever home.
Ashly also ensured followers that she and her family were looking for a new home, preferably one without a crawl space.