A woman went viral after she captured the moment police arrested a stranger who had been living in the crawl space underneath her house.
TikToker Ashly Guardino (@Ashlyguardino), a resident of Lake Elsinore, Calif., began filming after she saw a man’s arm reach out from inside her crawl space. The harrowing video, which has been viewed 6 million times and garnered over 318,000 likes as of publication, sparked a debate about mental health and homelessness.
@ashlyguardino ♬ original sound – Ashlyguardino
Ashly explains the situation at the beginning of the video: “So it’s 6 o’clock in the morning. We woke up because we heard a noise.”
She pauses and looks off-camera. “Oh, here comes the police. We heard this noise, and so I came outside. I thought somebody was on the roof. I’m looking around, standing at the front door and I’m peeking out… I see the grass moving. A f*cking arm comes out of the hole and is feeling around.”
She shows viewers the original open hole next to her front door before moving to the side of her house to show how the suspect got into the crawl space. “There is a whole ass man living here for months,” she continues. “Living underneath the house… Imagine being half-awake and seeing a dirty arm come out of this hole.”
The video flashes forward to an officer speaking with the man underneath Ashly’s home. Then, it jumps to two officers, with guns drawn, commanding the suspect to climb out from underneath the property. Eventually, the man crawls outside and is placed under arrest.
“Oh, he’s high as sh*t,” Ashly comments once she gets a good look at him. Her final frame shows officers escorting the suspect from the house to a police cruiser.
Many viewers were horrified by the video, and they praised Ashly for handling the situation so well.
“New fear unlocked. Glad y’all were able to get him out of there,” one user said.
“Omg I would not be able to live there anymore!! So scary,” a second agreed.
“I thought there was gonna be an alligator or a snake but a human???? Creeped out x100,” another added.
“That’s literally a worst nightmare,” a fourth said.
Others sympathized with the suspect, and discussed how out of control the housing crisis has gotten.
“So sad, obviously it’s scary and wrong, but damn the housing crisis is real,” a commenter wrote.
“Don’t get me wrong, this is horrifying. But imagine your life circumstances requiring you to find shelter under a home,” agreed a second.
“This is so scary but also so incredibly sad. We really need to do better for the unhoused in our country,” another added.
“I’d say the guy under the house needs to do better,” one user retorted.
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the housing crisis has been on the rise since 2017. Though homeless services have continued to expand, they can’t keep up with the number of afflicted Americans. Approximately 421,400 people were homeless in 2022. High housing costs and low income have become major factors in the rising numbers of unhoused people.
A study from the University of California reports that an estimated 171,000 Californians are homeless. These Californians account for 30 percent of the nation’s homeless population. Recently, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced plans to eliminate street homelessness in LA by 2026. Her plans include declaring a state emergency and relocating people from the streets to hotels and motels.
The Daily Dot reached out to Ashly via TikTok comment for further information.
