THE chilling world of phrogging has terrified people for years as strangers secretly live in the lofts and basements of unsuspecting homeowners.
Horror stories include people watching porn as homeowners sleep – or fully grown adults creeping into the tiniest of wall spaces to spend months undetected and completely hidden.
CCTV shows one woman climbing down out of an attic after the homeowners left
And in Australia – this man was found in a crawlspace above the bedrooms
Inside EditionThe moment a man was caught sneaking inside his neighbours house to drill holes into the ceiling of a 10-month-old babies bedroom[/caption]
Inside EditionPhroggers can get into homes in a number of scary ways but often stay in attics, basements or inside the walls of a house[/caption]
Brayden Woodhouse sneaked into homes and watched porn in the same room as the homeowners as they sleptJeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News
Phrogging is when someone lives in your home without you knowing – and even celebrities have been targeted, including George Michael and Pamela Anderson.
The word comes from the idea that a phrogger is similar to how a frog jumps around from place to place.
Victims often feel as though someone is watching them sleep, or may find things such as their hairbrushes or tools misplaced around their home as well as food being left out and crumbs littered across the kitchen.
Sometimes so-called phroggers simply want a warm and dry place to stay and hide out in someone’s home.
But others do it for the thrill – and phrogging forums and chatrooms have exploded online for tips and recommended locations.
Phrogging expert Krista Reuther, an educational writer for Turbo Tenant, revealed why people become phroggers and why it’s on the rise.
She told The Sun: “The overarching motive is probably desperation and wanting to be somewhere safe but I can imagine it being more of a thrill for because you have an audience some of the phroggers.”
Last year, a thrilling documentary series titled Phrogging: Hider in My House featured survivors sharing their most skin-crawling and creepy stories.
Films such as I See You and Phrogging were also released and the term was officially added to popular website Urban Dictionary in 2006.
Krista believes the reason for the increase in knowledge around the scary subject is down to two reasons.
“I think we’re hearing more about it in the media because people are starting to see that this is a pattern versus one off weird behaviours,” she said.
“But there are communities online that people go to for phrogging tips and to share locations of places that they’ve been able to stay successfully so that other phroggers can then go and jump in.
“So I would also suspect that it’s a crime that’s becoming easier because of the communities forming.”
Watching porn
In March, a 20-year-old from Cedar City, Utah, was charged with burglary, criminal mischief and trespassing after he was caught watching porn next to the owners of the house he had been staying in overnight.
Brayden Woodhouse would go in the house late at night when the residents were asleep and use their devices to watch the filth with them laying feet away.
Woodhouse apologised to the homeowners in court for breaking in and “watching porn on your computer in those late nights”.
County Attorny Chad Dotson labelled him an “unsettling, midnight intruder who gets pleasure from sneaking around a person’s home while a family sleeps”.
Woodhouse avoided jail, but the judge told him: “You’ve victimised a number of people, you’ve damaged their property, you’ve violated their privacy in an intrusive way and you really impacted their sense of safety in their own homes.”
The boy in the walls
Over the course of several weeks in 1986, Daniel LaPlante – a 16-year-old student – broke into a home and snuck into a tiny crawl space only six inches wide.
But LaPlante wasn’t trying to stay hidden and instead wanted the family to know he was in their house and started to torment them.
The two young sisters – 15 and nine-years-old – once tried using a ouija board to contact their dead mother but when LaPlante realised what was going on he became the girls frightening ghost.
He started knocking on the walls every night for days on end until the girls starting to get scared of the demon in their walls.
TV channels were constantly changing, everyday items were being moved and cartons of milk were being mysteriously drunk.
Empty bottles of alcohol kept popping up but the worse thing LaPlante did was scrawling disturbing messages like “marry me” and “I’m in your room. Come and find me,” on the walls in mayonnaise and ketchup.
A family portrait was also left pinned up on a wall using a knife.
LaPlante was discovered by the father in a wardrobe with his face painted, swinging a lethal hatchet.
The “boy in the walls” escaped and ran down into the basement where he was eventually caught by the cops.
In the later investigation, a tunnel was found from the crawl space to the walls where the boy would move around the house.
Several peep holes were also found that LaPlante would use to spy on the young girls and track their movements.
Bad intentions
A terrifying stranger was reportedly found living in a couple’s home when they returned from vacation as he allegedly wanted to “play doctor” with them.
James Campbell, 36, and his wife Brittany, 37, were left stunned when they came face-to-face with Ezequiel Zayas after coming home to him threatening to perform an unwanted surgery on the couple.
Brittany told the New York Post: “He wanted to play doctor on us – and not in the cute little kid way.”
He allegedly penned a chilling manifesto, which included plans on how to turn the couple into perfect people.
The couple unearthed a series of chilling notes on the computer and James said their home was left in “chaos”.
Brittany felt “terror” as the pair uncovered Zayas’ alleged plans.
She told KHON2: “He violated our family, he violated our home.”
‘Denver’s Spiderman’
Theodore Coneys got nicknamed Spiderman in 1942 by newspapers in Colorado – months after he became a murderous phrogger.
Coneys was looking for a place to stay on a mild October night when he sneaked into the home of Philip Peters.
Peters caught the tall, disheveled man in his kitchen rummaging around for food.
But moments after he confronted him, Coneys took a viscous swing with a cast iron pan and beat the man to death.
Neighbours found the body as the suspect apparently vanished into thin air.
After nine long months of constant noises coming from the house and a foul stench wafting through the deathly walls, the police stuck two officers outside the home to keep watch.
According to reports at the time, the police heard a noise inside the house and ran in to check.
They opened a closet door and saw a long pair of legs disappearing through a small opening to the attic before each man grabbed a leg and pulled the killer down.
Coneys was taken to a station and admitted he killed Peters in a fight after he was caught looking for food.
The pair had known each other through a guitar club in the area.
The man was dubbed “Denver’s Spiderman” as the officer who first went into the hell hole said: “A man would have to be a spider to stand it long up there.”
Coneys lived in the tiny crawl space in the attic for most of the year and had made himself a nest of to live in.
Neighbours constantly reported the smell and the officer who was sent to investigate was violently ill as his head popped up into the attic.
Theodore Coneys killed a man and then lived in his attic for around nine monthsDenver public library
Krista’s tips to stop phroggers in their tracks
Phrogging can be a nightmare situation if you’re the victim of it but there are a few things you can do to avoid them altogether or get rid of them if you’re worried their already in your house.
Look out for any signs of an unwanted guest – Keep an eye on food going missing or things being moved around the house when you go out.
Trust your senses – Humans are clever and they can usually tell when they’re being watched so believe in your gut and don’t risk ignoring it just in case.
Speak to your neighbours – Chances are phroggers will only come out from hiding when the house is empty so the best bet for who will see them moving around or turning on lights are those across the street.
Check for potential hiding spots – If someone could possibly live in a gap in your walls or under your floorboards make sure to check regularly.
Use technology – Set up a camera or use clever smart home devices to either calm down your worries or find out what’s going on at home.
Caught on camera
An elderly man was caught sneaking into his neighbor’s attic with a power drill in his hand back in 2017.
He was then caught drilling a hole into the ceiling of a 10-month-old babies bedroom and peering inside.
Surveillance video footage from Jerome Kennedy’s home camera shows the horror moment his neighbor Robert Havrilla, 69, was caught in the act in a quiet street in Pennsylvania.
Jerome says when he watched back the tape he was shocked by the complexity of his neighbours sneaking.
He said: “It shows him removing a false wall that he engineered, climbing onto my ceiling, above my baby’s crib, and he lies on some planks that he put there, in my ceiling.”
Jerome had a feeling something was wrong when he heard someone above his bedroom on multiple occasions and even saw flashlights coming down through vents in his house.
Ex in the attic
A woman from South Carolina was left fearing the worst when she felt an eerie presence in her house late at night.
Tracy couldn’t sleep due to several creepy sounds in her home but she never believed it could be her ex-boyfriend from 12 years ago causing the racket.
On one evening, nails started to fall from the ceiling right in front of the petrified woman.
Tracy’s eldest sons and nephew went to investigate and found a man hiding out.
But they were shocked when Tracy realised it was her former lover who she hadn’t spoke to in over a decade.
It turned out he had made himself a home using coats and jackets in the heating unit upstairs.
When the gig was up, he managed to ram past the startled boys and out of the house before the police could arrive.
In the attic, they found old takeaway cups overflowing after being used as the phrogger’s toilet.
The air vents had also been rigged so the creep would spy on his ex and her new life from above.
The man had been released from jail two weeks earlier and is believed to have gone straight to the home.
Iconic swimsuit fiend
Baywatch megastar Pamela Anderson had no idea what a phrogger was up until the summer of 2001.
Pamela kept noticing her food and clothes disappearing but was mortified when she discovered where it was all ending up.
A homeless French woman named Christine Roth decided she fancied a nice life in a millionaire’s mansion.
Her choice of home would turn out to be the actress’ pool house where Roth was discovered by Pamela and her children.
To make things even worse, the phrogger had dressed up in one of the most legendary outfits ever seen on TV – the famous Baywatch red bathing suit.
Already unsettled enough, Pamela was then given an odd letter from the woman who claimed she didn’t find the star particularly attractive but did want to touch her a little.
Roth was handed to the police and slapped with a misdemeanour and ordered back to France.
The red swimsuit was never seen again by the star as she told the police to keep it.
Floorboard creeper
One of the more terrifying celebrity stories happened to the late George Michael who spent four days living with a new roommate he had no idea was literally right beneath him.
The Wham! legend found a woman living underneath the floorboards in his £2.5million Hampstead home after the crazed lady entered the house days earlier.
She popped out from under the floor to surprise George before he called the police and she ran off.
The stalker reportedly stole one of the singer’s books and got hold of his email address.
After being caught, the woman bombarded George with threatening messages to his private email account.
A friend of the star went on to reveal: “He’s received a lot of emails from this woman and they’re not pleasant.
“He can’t shake her off and is worried by what she might do next.”
The content of the messages was so alarming that cops reportedly feared the artist could face a similar tragic ending as John Lennon.
Other celebs have also been victims of phrogger including Rihanna whose housekeeper found a man charging his phone in her home after he had unpacked an overnight bag.
And famed Hollywood actor Brad Pitt once came home to the news that a 19-year-old girl had hopped into his bed for over 10 hours after putting on his clothes because she was cold.
Ezequiel Zayas wanted ‘to play doctor’ with the people whose home he had phrogged
Several celebrities have been victims of phrogging – including Pamela Anderson who found her phrogger wearing the iconic Baywatch swimsuitRex
Suffolk County Sheriff’s OfficeQuamine Taylor was P Diddy’s phrogger and regularly turned up at the rapper’s house and made himself at home[/caption]
George Michael had an unwanted guest living under his floorboards
A group of friends lived under a shopping mall for weeks at a time and managed to bring in sofas, a TV and a PlayStation to the secret apartment
Leave a comment
