A man was discovered residing beneath an elderly woman’s house in California and has allegedly been taken into custody.
On Thursday, Nov. 7, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) discovered the individual in the crawl space beneath the El Sereno property after a woman, believed to be in her early ’90s, reported hearing unusual sounds, according to NBC News, KCAL News, and KTLA.
The woman’s grandson informed KCAL News that it took officers several hours to extricate the man. The man reportedly gave himself up at approximately 4:30 a.m. local time on Friday after law enforcement deployed gas.
According to the report, authorities uncovered blankets and food beneath the premises during their encounter with the individual.
According to Ricardo Silva, the woman’s son-in-law, the sounds they had been hearing for weeks were “typically late at night, and we just attributed it to animals being under the house,” as reported by NBC.
“The noises were kind of like knocking. 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,’ ” Silva added of the sounds, which had gotten louder by Nov. 7, per the outlet.
The individual has now been recognized as Issac Betancourt, as reported by NBC and KTLA.
There is uncertainty regarding the duration of Betancourt’s stay beneath the elderly woman’s residence, but her family believes he could have been there for as long as six months, according to NBC News.
The report indicated that Betancourt is currently dealing with charges that include trespassing.
According to inmate records from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department accessed by PEOPLE, Betancourt, 27, faced a misdemeanor charge leading to his arrest on Nov. 8. He was released the following day and is set to appear in court on Dec. 6.
As reported by KTLA, the individual was initially resistant to leaving the crawl space, prompting law enforcement to deploy “police dogs and rubber bullets without success,” ultimately leading to the use of tear gas.
“It’s a bizarre thing, but it’s not probably uncommon, you know. In this day and age, people are looking for shelter,” Silva said, per the TV station.
“He refused to leave. He wasn’t scared of the dogs, and the first two attempts at gas didn’t fish him out,” Silva added of the man, according to NBC News.