Closet Neighbor

One night some years ago I was moving out of an apartment of where I had been living alone. I had spent the last 5 days moving my stuff out and only had some stuff left over in a closet. Having cleared out the closet almost fully, I noticed serious damage to the interior wall hidden behind an ironing board that I never use. A huge chunk of it was missing and there was some drywall on the closet floor. I got nervous because I knew I might lose my deposit.

After moving everything out of the way, I notice that the space in the wall fell down into what I assumed was the same closet, but in the apartment underneath me. I knew right away that it was mice/rats because I've seen them do this exact thing before. They eat through everything.

I got a flashlight to look down to see if there was a bunch of mice down there and if I needed to call someone. I stuck my head in the hole and shone the light and it was actually pretty clear. Except there was a small ladder in there leading up to my closet.

So I freaked out quietly and turned off the flash light. I saw some light being cast into the space from the lower floor and I saw a shadow move, as though someone was standing there and then moved when I turned the light off.

I yanked the ladder out (damaging the wall even more in the process) and ran out, across the street to a Denny's parking lot and called the cops. As soon as I hung up, I saw the blinds in my window part open for a few seconds and then close again. They came within minutes and apprehended my downstairs neighbour. =Turns out he hadn't left his apartment in almost 3 years and developed paranoid schizophrenia, causing him to visit my apartment when I was out. =

The worst part is I remember hearing crying/wailing sounds coming from my closet as far back as a year before I moved out. Long wails that would start and stop in the middle of the night. He was not charged with anything and lives in a halfway house last I heard (~4 years ago).

edit: since this kind of blew up I'll add a few other details

• I noticed white/grey flakes/powder around the apartment from time to time. I thought it was the stucco ceiling flaking off. there was never an obvious trail back to the closet but it's clear that he got drywall on himself when going through the hole. I suspect he swept up after himself

• Once, I closed the blinds before going out on a hot day to keep the place from getting stuffy and came back to them being open

• I actually met the guy when I first moved in, he introduced himself outside as my downstairs neighbour. Not sure how he knew. He said he hoped that we can be good friends. That was about a year before he stopped leaving his apartment. I did see a police photo of him taken the day of the incident and he looked like he just stopped eating. he was extremely skinny, pale and had a crazed look. When I met him he was just a normal looking guy walking his dog

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#Person/Neighbor #Building/aa/Closet #Parasite #Unexplained/Explained