Ohio State students find secret roommate in their home

Dan Reimold | USA TODAY College

An incredibly odd story about off-campus housing at Ohio State University is rightfully earning attention and a growing number of web hits in Buckeye country and beyond.

According to The Lantern, OSU's campus newspaper, a group of male students leasing a typical fixer-upper home near the school were also unknowingly rooming with "some random guy" — in their basement.

As Lantern assistant multimedia editor Chelsea Spears reports, the students initially joked about having a ghost when they found the doors to their cupboards, ovens and microwaves open without explanation.

A subsequent search of the home's basement brought their tale into horror movie territory. Specifically, the students stumbled across a locked door that was not shielding a series of "weird noises like dings and alarms" coming from behind it.

"The roommates thought a locked door in the basement led to a utility closet," Lantern staffer Kathleen Martini confirms. "When maintenance workers knocked the door down, they found a bedroom complete with framed photographs and textbooks."

The secret bedroom belonged to a young man named Jeremy, who apparently attends OSU. He was not home when the room was discovered and was quickly evicted — although the students facilitated contact with him beforehand and allowed him to move out his stuff.

"He was a really nice guy," said OSU student and legal house resident Brett 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."

The student residents are also angry at the leasing company's lack of oversight and are considering legal action.

As one of Mugglin's roommates tells the Lantern, "They hadn't changed the locks from the year before, and the keys don't say 'do not duplicate.' There could be hundreds of people with keys to the house."

Currently there are more than 27,000 views on YouTube for the Lantern's related video report.

As one commenter, undoubtedly speaking for many, shares, "OMG this is so weird and scary!"

To that end, the weirdest and scariest part of the story: A while back, Mugglin actually met Jeremy in the home's basement.

According to Mugglin, they introduced themselves, had a brief conversation and parted company. At the time, Mugglin figured Jeremy was simply visiting friends in another part of the house.

Nope. He was secretly living behind the locked door nearby.

Dan Reimold writes the Campus Beat column for USA TODAY College and maintains the student journalism industry blog College Media Matters.