A group of Ohio State University students who joked around about their off-campus housing being haunted recently learned that they were not that far off: It seems a strange man had been occupying a "secret bedroom" inside the students' house for months.

OSU's student paper The Lantern reports that a man named Jeremy, allegedly an OSU student himself, was let into the house by his cousin who lived there last year, and never left.

Students recalled hearing "weird noises like dings and alarms" emanating from behind a locked door in the basement that they believed was utility closet, but chalked it up to supernatural phenomena.

It wasn't until maintenance workers opened the door that they found "a bedroom complete with framed photographs and textbooks."

Later, house resident Brett Mugglin remembered running into an unknown man in the basement during the summer, and now believes that man was Jeremy.

"He was a nice enough guy," Mugglin told The Lantern. "He just wasn’t supposed to be there."

The uninvited houseguest was allowed to retrieve his stuff before being formally evicted.

A few of the students plan to take legal action against NorthSteppe Realty, the firm that provides OSU with property services.

"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," said Mugglin.

[screengrab via The Lantern]