Ex-boyfriend Attic,When Tracy, a single mother-of-five, heard banging in her attic, she thought the worst it could be was an animal or a ghost.
But when she sent her older sons and nephew up to check, they found a man she had broken up with 12 years ago sleeping in her heating unit at her home in Rock Hill, Charlotte.
The 44-year-old had just been released from prison two weeks ago.
Tracy, who did not want to be named because her ex-boyfriend is still on the loose, said she last saw him a year ago when he did some odd jobs for her at her home and, though she had letters from him while he was in jail, she made it clear things were over.
She told the Charlotte Observer that his addiction to drugs and offenses for robbery - including her own truck - meant she was not interested and broke up with him for good 12 years ago.
'That was it. I never looked back.'
Talking about the night she discovered the man in her house, the nurse said she had a feeling 'something wasn't right'.
Then, she said she heard a thump coming from the ceiling and noticed things coming loose from the ceiling.
She said: 'Then all the nails just popped out of the ceiling over my bed. Like "bing, bing, bing". I thought there was some poltergeist stuff going on.'
That's when she sent the men in her home to check out the attic.
'They found a man. He had packed all the old coats and jackets into the heating unit and was sleeping in the heating unit,' she said, adding that the man ran downstairs and out of the house before police could get there.
Tracy later discovered that her husband had been sneaking into her house, though police are still unsure how he managed to do so.
Officers said they found a number of Sonic cups filed with feces and urine in the attic.
The only entrance to the attic is inside the home -- in the hall that connects her children's bedrooms.
By the time police arrived he had already escaped and is still roaming the neighborhood.
Tracy and her children are now afraid to sleep in their own rooms.
She said: 'I want him to be charged with it. It could be somebody else he does the same thing to, but she might not be so lucky.'
Police describe the suspect as being a black male, 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing 170 pounds.
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