A grandmother in Adelaide spent months believing a large possum had moved into her attic. The truth turned out to be far more unsettling. Police later confirmed that an unidentified squatter had set up a hidden camp in the ceiling above her head and had been slipping into her home while she slept.
Strange signs at home
The woman lives alone in a Housing Trust property in South Australia. She began to notice that something was off in late 2025. Odd noises drifted down from the ceiling, her cat grew more and more restless, and a range of personal belongings seemed to disappear.
It did not occur to her that another person could be responsible. "Lots of different things or items went missing, but I thought, ‘no, maybe I’ve misplaced them’," she said. The noises, she assumed, were coming from a possum.
Smaller oddities kept piling up. Her toilet seat was repeatedly left up, and she sometimes found unfamiliar contents in the bowl.
A crash in the night
The mystery broke open in the early hours of one morning, when a massive crash echoed through the house. "There was this humungous bang," she said. "It sounded like somebody had almost fallen through the roof." Then she heard profanities coming from above her ceiling.
She was too scared to move. "I was too freaked out to ring the police because I thought if I made a noise, whoever was up there would come down," she said.
Police later searched the property and found a makeshift bed, shoes, dishes, canned food and drugs tucked into the ceiling cavity. It is believed the squatter got onto the roof through broken tiles and crept down into the house while she slept.
"There’s been someone up there this whole time, getting up and down in my home when I’ve been asleep," she said. "I got quite upset, and I thought, no, this is not right."
Questions over the response
The woman says she had mentioned the suspicious noises to the Housing Trust more than once before the discovery, but no help came. "They make you out to feel like you’re stupid," she said.
The Housing Trust has stressed that it is committed to the safety of its tenants. Nick Champion, the Minister for Housing and Urban Development, said the Trust was made aware of her concerns only last week. He confirmed that since then the property has been visited several times to check that it is secure.
The roof has now been repaired and the locks have been changed. Champion said the Trust would keep working with the tenant so that she feels safe. He urged anyone who thinks someone is trespassing on their property to contact police.
Where things stand
A South Australian Police spokesperson has confirmed that the investigation is still ongoing, and the squatter has not been identified. For the grandmother, the shock of learning that a stranger had been living above her for so long is likely to take time to fade, even with the repairs done and new locks fitted.
Image credit: 7NEWS
Source: The Mirror US
Leave a Reply