Police arrested a naked man Friday morning in a cramped space beneath a 93-year-old woman’s home in El Sereno.
Los Angeles police spent hours forcing the man outside before using tear gas, causing chaos in the neighborhood and forcing those living inside the home to sleep elsewhere. said.
This disturbing incident came after she and her family reported hearing strange noises for several weeks.
“It was always late at night and I couldn’t think about anything because of the animals under the house,” said Ricardo Silva, the son-in-law of the elderly woman who lives in the house.
But on Thursday night, Silva said the noise got louder.
“It sounded like a knock. It felt like they were knocking back from under the house as my wife was walking, so she said something wasn’t right,” Silva said. Said.
A family member who was in the house immediately called the police, who arrived and found a naked man in a crack under the house.
The man was identified as 27-year-old Isaac Betancourt.
“He refused to leave. He wasn’t afraid of the dog and the first two gas attempts didn’t get him out,” Silva said.
Betancourt did not give up easily. After refusing to come out of the confined space for hours, LAPD said they had to resort to tear gas to get him out.
It’s unclear how long Betancourt was staying at the home, but his family suspects he may have been there for up to six months.
The crawlspace itself is only about 2 feet tall and extends underneath the entire house with three entryways. His family believes he used it to get back and forth.
“It’s strange, but it’s probably not unusual. People are looking for shelter in these times,” Silva said.
The family says they will secure the crawl space to prevent something like this from happening again.
Betancourt was arrested on suspicion of trespassing, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
