by Adam Ghassemi
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – A group of men were all asleep when someone came crashing through their ceiling. Turns out, it was completely innocent but gave them a big reason to sleep with one-eye open.
Early Thursday morning, Alex Hilliard said he was sound sleep when a crash suddenly woke up the whole apartment.
"I didn't know if somebody broke into the house or what was going on," he said Friday. "Then I heard a roommate yell something and he came out and said 'I think there's somebody on the roof.'"
At first, the only thing they could figure out was sections of the ceiling had fallen down not far from where Hilliard and his dog were sleeping as well as in back bedroom.
"That one also came very close to landing on my roommates face while he was asleep," he said.
Turns out, the holes didn't have anything to do with the roof.
The single-story building has one large attic with access from only one apartment a few doors down. According to police, an 18-year-old woman decided to climb up there to look at things left by past tenants.
According to a report, the woman was only using the light of her cell phone to walk through the attic, and missed a step before falling through the ceiling.
Friday she did not return our phone call. She won't face charges, but will have to pay for repairs.
The woman was able to pull herself out, and even came by later to apologize for shocking them awake with a crash that will be hard to forget.
"It's kind of surreal, I guess. Not knowing why on earth that happened. Because the last thing we thought was somebody running through the attic," Hilliard said. "Not really anything you'd ever expect. I mean, I've heard stories of people falling through attics, but never at 1:00 in the morning when everyone is asleep."
A maintenance crew was supposed to begin those repairs soon.
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