Police in Tennessee have arrested a man who, for the second time in less than two weeks, was allegedly caught secretly living in the attic crawlspace above his 14-year-old girlfriend's bedroom.
On Wednesday, officers in Mount Juliet responded to a report about a suspicious person after a resident spotted a man going into a home on the 200 block of Karen Drive, police said in a news release. When they arrived, they heard noises inside the house and waited for the woman who lived there to let them in.
They had a pretty good idea who the suspect might be.
After searching the residence, police said they found Matthew Castro hiding under Christmas decorations in the attic of the girl's home, a little more than a week after the 18-year-old had been pulled from the same spot and charged with trespassing (their relationship is within the terms of legal consent in Tennessee). In fact, Castro had been in court earlier on Wednesday for that case.
Almost two weeks ago, the girl's mother called 911 after she came home and found her daughter's boyfriend standing at the top of the stairs. She shouted at him to get out of the house, but Castro instead bolted toward her daughter's bedroom and disappeared.
When officers arrived, they began searching the house and found Castro lying on the ceiling rafters in a crawlspace in the attic, according to the incident report. They had to crawl in and pull him out because he refused to come out, the report added.
After arresting him, police said, they discovered he had been living in the attic and coming down at night when the teen was in her room with the door locked. He would then go back to the attic space through a door in her closet.
Castro was arrested on suspicion of aggravated criminal trespassing and resisting arrest.
The girl's mother had also previously called 911 on Castro in May for trespassing. In their report, officers also noted that the 14-year-old had run away in the past and sparked an "unruly child and run away investigation."