He had slept in their bed.
He had used their washing machine.
And on the afternoon of July 24, he had just made lunch with their cast iron frying pan when Rob Baker and Helena Paivinen found him standing in their Kamloops, B.C., home.
The couple had just returned from a dayslong trip to Vancouver, and the unknown man was the last thing they expected to get as a welcome home present.
“It was unnerving to have somebody here and thinking about myself, if I was here alone and he had entered through the bedroom,” Paivinen told CBC’s Daybreak Kamloops. “Scary. That would have been scary.”
The man, on the other hand, told the couple that someone else had told him he could stay there.
Described as only wearing blue jeans and no shirt, he then fled through the backyard and jumped over the fence after the couple called the police.
In a statement to CBC News, local RCMP said multiple officers arrived at the home, located on the 800-block of Lorne Street, at 12:15 p.m. PT that Wednesday.
Police said they could not find the man then, but they were able to seize a number of items for forensic examination. Currently, the investigation is still ongoing.
Baker described the man as being between five feet 10 inches and six feet tall, with an athletic build and a buzz cut.
This is not the first time this summer that Kamloops RCMP has responded to a case of a stranger entering someone else’s home.
On June 9, their officers received a call from a house located at the 3500-block of Tranquille Road.
The resident there said she had come home that afternoon to “find that someone had eaten her food, slept in her bed, fed her cats, and used her laundry facilities.” But nothing valuable was taken, according to police.
No damage, theft reported
Back at the Lorne Street home, Paivinen said she initially “freaked out” and wanted to put bars on her windows or move. But she later calmed down, as police officers and a German shepherd dog swept through the house to collect evidence.
Looking back, Paivinen said the man had likely entered through a screened porch door that the couple had left unlocked during their rush to go to Vancouver the previous Friday.
She added that their home had a security alarm, but Barker disconnected it because it had set off too many false alarms.
The couple also noted that the man didn’t damage or steal anything from their home.
“It could have been so much worse,” Baker said. “I am ever so grateful that he did not invite his friends over for a party.”
“He’s a clean guy,” Paivinen added. “Somebody taught him well. He had his underwear all folded up, put into my husband’s drawer.”
Police asked anyone with information related to the incident, including security video, to contact them at 250-828-3000 and reference file 2024-23714.