Man returns home, finds strangers moved into house

Imagine coming home one day to find strangers having moved in without notice. They have made themselves quite comfortable—kind of like what happened in Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

That’s what happened to a man from Union, South Carolina, who came home one day to find a strange woman, her children, and a dog there, eating his food and even wearing his family’s clothes.

Kent Foster had arrived home from work on Feb. 13 around 3.30 p.m. when he found the front door had been barricaded shut by a car seat, local station WHNS reported. He decided to call 911 upon hearing noises of strangers, including that of a crying baby, inside the house.

Then, he saw a strange woman who poked her head out of the door and asked him: “What are you doing at my house?”

“And I said ‘Excuse me? I live here,’” Foster recounted of the encounter to the news station.

He said the woman then asked him why her children’s belongings were in the backyard, to which he replied, “What are you talking about, this is all my children’s stuff.”

Foster said the woman then rolled her eyes and shut the door on him. At the time, Foster was standing outside the house, waiting for the police to arrive.

He had noticed a small dog that looked like a chihuahua in his yard just moments earlier and found it strange. He’d never seen a dog around his house in the past four years because the neighborhood is one that is full of cats.

Foster told WHNS that when police arrived and knocked on the door, they were met with a strange greeting.

“When she opens the door, the first thing she says is, ‘Can I help you?’” Foster said. He then asked her to leave his house again.

The woman reportedly told police that she lived there but the police said her claim was not true, according to WHNS.

Intruders Trashed the House

When the woman obeyed police orders and opened the door, Foster was taken aback when he realized what the woman was wearing.

“My mouth drops,” he told WHNS, “She had all of [my wife’s] clothes on—from bedroom shoes, to pants, to tank top, to shirt.”

Foster saw two strange children inside the house and they were wearing his own children’s clothes. But one child, a boy, was completely undressed from the waist down.

Meanwhile, the chihuahua-like dog had urinated in the home. Foster also noticed furniture had been moved around the house, which was in a state of disarray, and someone had been smoking inside.

It may have been all too much for the homeowner, who liked to keep his house fresh and clean.

“My house stays spotless, and, aroma, like candles, all the time,” he told WHNS.

What appeared to have bothered him most were the wet sponges in the bathroom sink, and suds and fresh water in his bathtub.

“Someone, I’m not sure who, whether it was the kids or it was her, had taken baths—in my house,” he told the news station with emphasis.

Foster also said that the intruders had also been eating the family’s food.

To sum up the entire incident, he said “I feel violated. I feel extremely violated.”

The Stranger

The woman was later identified by police as 25-year-old Savannah Rhinehart. She failed to give police a clear answer as to how she managed to break into the house.

Police say they also don’t know why she decided to target and break into the house.

“I spoke to the officer who responded who said that in her mind, she thought she lived there,” Union Public Safety Captain Kevin Powers told People.

Foster recounted to WHNS the woman’s strange appearance and conduct.

“Not many teeth in her mouth, face was really sunk in, and the way she acted, tweaked and turned the whole conversation,” Foster said. “At that point, I was like, ‘she may be on something.’”

According to WHNS, police said they took Rhinehart to the hospital to be evaluated for her strange behavior.

After she was released from the hospital, police charged her with child neglect, non-violent burglary, and petit larceny.

Her children were put in emergency protective custody under the Department of Social Services.