Homeless Man Spent 3 Weeks Hiding In Ex-Girlfriend's Attic

Pittsburgh police arrested a man who allegedly spent weeks hiding in his ex-girlfriend’s attic and then later attacked her.

Cary Cocuzzi, 31, was charged Saturday with burglary and unlawful restraint.

The woman had spotted clues that there might be a person living in the house. She saw that furniture had been moved around, a toilet seat up and a blanket in the corner of her basement.

"I knew that blanket had not been there before, I knew it. But what could I do? I already had the [Protection From Abuse] against him. I can't call the police and say there is a blanket in my basement," she told WPXI, an NBC affiliate in Pittsburgh.

The woman allegedly found Cocuzzi standing in the middle of her bedroom at 11:55 a.m on Saturday. She had initially assumed the noise she heard was from her cat.

Cocuzzi proceeded to grab her face before she was able to flee and alert neighbors, who called 911.

"He had been in my home while my children were here, while I was here sleeping. You never think this will happen to you," she said.

The woman had a PFA on Cocuzzi after accusing him of sexual assault.

He had been entering and leaving the home through an unlocked side door and has been charged with burglary and unlawful restraint.

"I had an intuition about it but I ignored it, I brushed it aside," she said about Cocuzzi being in the home. "I didn't want to seem paranoid but I should have trusted my instincts because I was right."

Cocuzzi reportedly had been homeless off and on in recent years.

He was booked into the Allegheny County Jail and granted a non-monetary bond, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

There was a similar situation in Arizona in March. Jose Mojarro-Parra was arrested and later told police he was sleeping in the attic since this was the only place his ex-wife allowed him to stay in the home. He was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence burglary, domestic violence stalking, aggravated harassment and violation of a protection order.