Arkansas family finds homeless man living in basement after noticing missing items

An Arkansas family’s growing unease over missing shoes, moved furniture and disappearing food ended in a startling discovery: a homeless man had been secretly living in their basement for days, authorities said.

The intruder, later identified as Preston Landis, was found hiding in a storage closet beneath the stairs before surrendering to the family as deputies arrived to arrest him.

Dig deeper:

Harding University professor Dutch Hoggatt told KTHV he first realized something was wrong when a pair of shoes he usually keeps by the back door suddenly disappeared.

"I asked my wife if she had thrown them away, and she had not," he said. "Over time, we noticed that chairs had been moved around in the house. We noticed that some of our food was missing."

Authorities later identified the intruder as Landis, who had been living inside the home undetected for several days — initially staying in a crawl space before moving into the basement.

After noticing the strange activity, Hoggatt and his wife alerted their daughter and son-in-law, Cherisee and Mark Gregory.

"I think they thought they were both going crazy. And I’m like, 'That doesn’t happen at the same time suddenly,'" Cherisee Gregory said.

On April 29, while Dutch Hoggatt was at church, the family searched the house. During the search, his wife, Sharon Hoggatt, opened a storage closet beneath the basement stairs.

"She went further into the closet, and that’s when I saw her eyes get really big. She starts to back out and says, 'There’s someone in there. I see their leg or their jeans or something,'" Mark Gregory said.

Mark then went downstairs to investigate as the person inside remained silent.

"When I get in the closet, I yell at the guy to come out," he said. "I have a baseball bat in one hand. I start hitting the door, or the frame, kind of just to scare him a little bit. And he finally says, 'OK, I’m coming.'"

What they're saying:

The man — later identified as Landis — told the family he was homeless and came out of the closet as deputies with the White County Sheriff’s Office arrived and took him into custody.

Authorities said Landis entered the property on April 27, initially staying in the crawl space before moving into the basement the following day, where he set up a makeshift bed in a storage area.

He was charged with residential burglary and theft of property, and his bond was set at $15,000. The White County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The family said nothing was taken from the home and expressed sympathy for Landis.

"We’re not angry at this man," Dutch said. "I feel sorry for the man. I’m glad we figured out there was somebody living in the house because this could have gone on for much longer than it did."