[url]http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/1908104[/url]

Fugitive lived in attic crawl space for 6 weeks

Associated Press

FREDERICK, Md. -- A man thrown out by his roommate returned to the home and hid in an attic crawl space for nearly six weeks, spying on the roommate through a telephone tap and hidden baby monitors, police said.

The secret surveillance was discovered Saturday when someone investigating strange noises pushed a screwdriver into a hole in the ceiling, and the screwdriver was pushed back, police Sgt. Andy Dewese said.

After he was discovered, Robin E. Lewis fled in a stolen vehicle, then returned Sunday and left his ex-roommate a note reading, "I will always be watching you," police said.

Lewis, who had been kicked out for not paying his share of the rent, also was wanted on an unrelated armed robbery warrant, police said. He remained at large today.

The roommate, Aaron Smith, told the Frederick News-Post he planned to avoid the rented town house until Lewis is caught, "or I'll move. I don't know what else to do."

The men had been roommates for 10 months, Smith said.

"I never really wanted a roommate, but he said he had no place to go," said Smith, 39. "I figured, 'Why not? He'll be able to help me out with the rent.'"

Smith told police he kicked Lewis out of the two-story town house at the end of March for failing to pay his share of the rent.

After that, Smith said, he heard odd noises for weeks but could never locate the source.

On Saturday, he and some guests found dime-sized holes in the ceilings of the master bedroom and living room, Dewese said. That was when one of them pushed a screwdriver into one of the holes, and someone pushed back.

Smith and a guest then searched an upstairs storage room and found Lewis in a 10-by-10-foot chamber hidden behind an insulation panel, according to the police report.

Lewis ran, snatched Smith's keys from a counter and sped off in his car, police said.

The hidden room contained a chair, laptop computer, videocassette recorder and television, plus bags of beer cans, fast food wrappers and other trash, police said. Lewis apparently had tapped into Smith's cable and telephone lines, police said.

Police also found baby monitor transmitters had been hidden throughout the house with a receiver in the crawl space, suggesting that Lewis tracked Smith's activities and roamed the town house freely while Smith was at work.

Lewis faces felony charges of burglary, theft and malicious destruction in Frederick County related to the alleged home invasion. He also was wanted on a warrant from neighboring Washington County charges him with the April 2 armed robbery of a crafts store.

WOW [shock]

FUCKED UP! WTF@!#@

*checks his attic for feds or other people snooping*

a real haunted house