LOS ANGELES (TCN) — A 27-year-old man was arrested after a lengthy standoff with police when he was found living in the crawlspace under an elderly woman’s home in the city’s El Sereno neighborhood.
According to KNBC-TV, a 93-year-old homeowner told her family that strange noises had been coming from under her home for several months, but she believed the sounds were just from animals. The woman’s grandson told KNBC that the noises grew increasingly louder on Thursday, Nov. 7, and sounded like “knocking.”
The grandson Ricardo Silva said, “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.”
The family called the Los Angeles Police Department at around 9 p.m., and when officers arrived, they discovered a naked man under the house. The man, identified as Isaac Betancourt, reportedly refused to comply with officers’ demands to leave. Police utilized K9s and tear gas to try and extract him, but that still didn’t work.
According to Silva, “He refused to leave. He wasn’t scared of the dogs, and the first two attempts at gas didn’t fish him out.”
He eventually exited the crawlspace at around 4:30 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 8, after police used tear gas, KCBS-TV reports.
Police searched the crawlspace and reportedly found blankets, food, and other items. They believe Betancourt had been living there for months. According to KNBC, the crawlspace is only about 2 feet high.
Betancourt was arrested on a charge of trespassing.