GRESHAM, Ore. (KPTV/CNN) – Half-eaten cupcakes, holes in the wall, and a t-shirt wearing cat named “Spaghetti” made things really weird for a pair of new homeowners.
They all came courtesy of a man hiding in their crawl space after raiding the kitchen and laundry room.
Timothy Smith and his fiance were getting ready to move into their new home. “Been looking for the last year,” Timothy explained. “We’ve been really serious about it the last three months and have jumped through so many hoops to get this place.”
Yesterday, they left their new place off 180th and Alder in Gresham. And when they came back, “We saw a bunch of stuff on our car, like a bottle of cider, a bunch of ceremonial knives and a Mac Book Pro,” Timothy said. “We’re like ‘that’s weird’ and then we come in and see all this other stuff.”
Not only that but inside there were holes in the walls. “Kind of like he was looking for money in the walls,” Timothy said.
Someone had been in the kitchen. “The cupcakes were in the fridge. He ate two, and just the bottom of one. The coffee cup he used is this one right here.”
They could hear something rustling in the crawl space. So timothy went in. That’s when he says he saw a cat wearing a shirt. “No one is going to put a shirt on a cat and leave it in a crawl space in a random house,” Timothy said. “Someone else is down here.”
Timothy got out of there and ran outside. “I started screaming, ‘Stop! Have them send someone here right now, someone is in the house 100%.'”
Gresham police got there quickly, making contact with the man in the crawl space and they got him to come out peacefully. “Sure enough, he walks out, he’s wearing my fiance’s onesie, covered in dirt,” Timothy said.
Police identified the suspect as Ryan Bishop. He now faces several charges including burglary and theft.
As for those new homeowners, they’re cleaning up. And Timothy has a message for the suspect: “I’ve been where that dude was. Don’t ever feel like you’re un-helpable. Help is always out there for you. Just find the right sources.”
That onesie Bishop was wearing was actually a pair of Christmas pajamas. As for “Spaghetti ” the cat, he’s safely back with the suspect’s grandmother.
© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.