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Homeless Woman Hid In Closet For A Year

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The Associated Press

Published: May 31, 2008

TOKYO - A homeless woman who sneaked into a man's house and lived undetected in his closet for a year was arrested in Japan after he became suspicious when food mysteriously began disappearing.

Police found the 58-year-old woman Thursday hiding in the top compartment of the man's closet and arrested her for trespassing, police spokesman Hiroki Itakura from southern Kasuya town said Friday.

After noticing food disappearing from his kitchen over several months, the resident installed security cameras that transmitted images to his mobile phone.

One of the cameras captured someone moving inside his home Thursday after he had left, and he called police thinking it was a burglar. However, when they arrived they found the door locked and all windows closed.

"We searched the house ... checking everywhere someone could possibly hide," Itakura said. "When we slid open the shelf closet, there she was, nervously curled up on her side."

The woman told police she had no place to live and sneaked into the house about a year ago when he left it unlocked. The closet is in part of a Japanese-style room, one of several rooms in the house where the man lived alone.

She had moved a mattress into the small closet space and apparently even took showers, Itakura said, calling the woman "neat and clean."

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