Sep 20, 2013 06:45 AM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

Spooky!

A group of Ohio State University students thought their off-campus house was haunted with spirits. However, it turned out that a mysterious man named 'Jeremy' had been living in the basement without their knowledge.

"It could have potentially been a scary situation," Mark Hartman, 21, said. "Two of the 10 roommates in our section of the house are girls and our rooms don't have locks on the doors."

Hartman, a senior at the university, said that soon after they moved into the house Aug 5, they began encountering a number of strange problems, including frequent power cuts. Somebody had to go to the basement to switch it back on.

"A few times, when my roommate Brett Mugglin was down there, he would hear noises," Hartman said. "But, when he tried to turn the handle on a door located in the basement, it was always locked."

In one instance, Mugglin actually came face to face with the stranger in the basement and asked him if he was living in the house.

"The guy said his name was Jeremy but wouldn't answer Brett's questions and just walked out of the house," Hartman said.

As time passed, the students experienced more ghostly stuff. Drawers would be left ajar in the kitchen and bathroom; doors to their cupboards, ovens and microwaves would be open without any reason, lights turned on, and weird noises from the basement like dings and alarms continued to disturb them.

Hartman and his roommates concluded that their house was haunted by a ghost.

When they contacted the landlord and eventually the police for a thorough inspection of the house, they were unable to open the locked basement door.

"The landlord and police pried off the door handle and, inside, we found a livable bedroom with photos, a TV and clothes," Hartman said.

That's when they realized that 'Jeremy,' a fellow OSU student had been living in the basement for some time now without paying rent. He sneaked into the basement through a side door in order to avoid being caught by the others.

"He was a really nice guy," said Mugglin. "I feel bad for him. It's just, he wasn't supposed to be living there ... It's funny now, but it potentially could have been extremely dangerous given that some random guy had a key to our house and was just living in our house without anyone knowing."

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