Woman 'Creeped Out' After Family Discovers Hidden Room in New House

A woman has described feeling "creeped out" at the contents of a hidden room discovered in her family's new home.

In a video originally shared to Reddit's /r/weird subreddit, a woman who asked to be referred to as simply Lydia offered viewers a glimpse inside the mysterious space.

Lydia recently moved with their family from Utah to a home in New York state. The property is well over 100 years old and has plenty of quirks, starting with a mysterious room. "It was my younger sister and our mom that found the room," Lydia told Newsweek. "The door is in my sister's closet, and she just assumed that it was a regular cabinet. She'd tried to open it before, but the door and the latch were all janky, and she was afraid she'd break it if she forced it open."

Eventually, their mom was enlisted to help find out what was inside the secret space. What they found left everyone feeling a little uneasy. Inside, they found a sleeping bag, a black backpack and some discarded food.

For many watching the footage online, one explanation immediately sprung to mind: phrogging. In 2022, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) calculated that around 582,000 Americans were experiencing homelessness. That equates to about 18 per 10,000 people. Desperate times often call for desperate measures, and phrogging is about as desperate as it comes. The term refers to an individual secretly living in another person's home without their knowledge or permission.

Instances of phrogging are few and far between. Last year, the New York Post reported an instance of a couple from Honolulu discovering a strange, unknown man living in their house.

However, Lydia does not think this is an instance of phrogging but rather something much more mundane and juvenile. "My guess is that a teenager found it and used it as a hidey-hole for things they might not want their parents to find," she said.

She began to suspect this after the family had a closer look at the contents of the room, which included "condom wrappers, porn and a mattress." Lydia said: "I was mostly just grossed out." The family also found a calendar dating back to 1980.

Unfortunately, Lydia's two young sisters, who live at the house, have been left feeling a little uneasy. "They have been pretty creeped out and hate having to walk through the house at night," she said.

Lydia is less perturbed, though. "I recorded the video just to send to my older sister, who lives out of state, because I've been joking with her about our 'creepy old house' since we moved in," Lydia said. "Then I got thinking about how hilariously bizarre the whole thing was, so I posted it on Reddit."

She's not sure why the clip has proven so popular. "I guess people just love to see creepy weird things happening to other people," Lydia said. Despite finding the humor in it all, she's hoping their new home doesn't spring any more surprises.

"We moved here about two weeks ago from across the country, and we'd never even seen the house in-person before moving in," Lydia added. "So I'm hoping that's the last kinda-gross discovery we make."

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