A professor from Harding University and his family in Arkansas were taken by surprise when they found out that a stranger had been living unnoticed in their basement. This unsettling discovery came after they observed various household items inexplicably disappearing.
Dutch Hoggatt shared with KTHV that his suspicions began when he noticed a missing pair of shoes that he typically left by the back door. This was the first sign that something unusual was happening in their home.
“I asked my wife if she’d thrown them away, but she hadn’t,” Hoggatt explained during the interview. “Gradually, we started seeing other odd things—chairs were moved, and some of our food was disappearing.”
The authorities eventually identified the intruder as Preston Landis. He had been clandestinely living in the family’s home for several days, moving between a crawl space and the basement until the family finally uncovered his presence.
Preston Landis, aged 41, spent three days secretly residing in the Arkansas professor’s house before he was discovered and subsequently arrested, as reported by the White County Sheriff’s Office.
After piecing together the mystery, Hoggatt and his wife shared the alarming news with their daughter and son-in-law, Cherisee and Mark Gregory.
“I think they thought they were both going crazy. And I’m like, ‘That doesn’t happen at the same time suddenly,’” Cherisee Gregory said.
On April 29, the family began searching the house while Dutch Hoggatt was at church, when his wife, Sharon Hoggatt, entered a storage closet beneath the basement stairs.
The Hoggatt family discovered a stranger living in their basement after noticing chairs and shoes were missing. (Dutch Hoggatt)
“She went further into the closet, and that’s when I saw her eyes get really big. She starts to back out and says, ‘There’s someone in there. I see their leg or their jeans or something,’” Mark Gregory said.
Mark went downstairs to see for himself what was happening as the person in the closet remained silent.
“When I get in the closet, I yell at the guy to come out,” he told KTHV. “I have a baseball bat in one hand. I start hitting the door, or the frame, kind of just to scare him a little bit. And he finally says, ‘OK, I’m coming.’”
The stranger slept in a storage closet, creating a make-shift bed (pictured). (Dutch Hoggatt)
The man, later identified as Landis, told the family he was homeless and stepped out as deputies from the White County Sheriff’s Office arrived to arrest him.
According to authorities, Landis first arrived on April 27, living in the Hoggatts’ crawl space before moving to the basement the next day, April 28, where he created a makeshift bed in a supply closet.
The sheriff’s office charged him with residential burglary and theft of property, with his bond set at $15,000.
The White County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The family emphasized that nothing was stolen from their home, and that they felt bad for Landis.
“We’re not angry at this man,” Dutch said. “I feel sorry for the man. I’m glad we figured out there was somebody living in the house because this could have gone on for much longer than it did.”
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