Police arrested a naked man in the crawlspace underneath the El Sereno home of a 93-year-old woman Friday morning.
Los Angeles police said they spent hours trying to get the man out before having to resort to tear gas, causing a huge commotion in the neighborhood and forcing the people living inside the home to have to find somewhere else to sleep.
The unsettling incident took place after she and her family had reported hearing strange noises for weeks.
“It was usually late at night, and we just chucked it off to animals being under the house,” said Ricardo Silva, son-in-law of the elderly woman living at home.
However, on Thursday night, Silva said the noise got louder.
“The noises were kind of like knocking. It was kind of like, as my wife was walking, they were kind of knocking back from under the house so she says, you know something’s wrong,” said Silva.
Family members at the home called the police immediately, and when officers arrived, they found a naked man in the crawlspace under the home.
The man was identified as 27-year-old Issac Betancourt.
“He refused to leave. He wasn’t scared of the dogs, and the first two attempts at gas didn’t fish him out,” said Silva.
Betancourt didn’t give up easily. After hours of refusing to come out of the crawlspace, LAPD said they had to resort to tear gas to get him out.
It’s unclear how long Betancourt had been underneath the home, but the family suspects he may have been staying for up to six months.
The crawlspace itself is only about 2 feet high and stretches under the entire home with three entryways. The family believes he used this one to come and go.
“It’s a bizarre thing, but it’s not probably uncommon, you know, in this day and age, people are looking for shelter,” Silva said.
The family says they’ll be securing the crawlspace to prevent this from happening ever again
Betancourt was arrested for trespassing, said LAPD.