by Sybil Johnson
Phishing I’ve heard of for years. Only recently did I run across the term phrogging. Being a curious sort, I looked it up.
phrogging – the act of secretly living in someone else’s home
Why don’t they use the term squatting, you say? There is a slight difference. Squatting is someone illegally occupying an uninhabited building. Phrogging is someone illegally living in an occupied building/property.
Apparently, the term comes from “frogs” who hop from lily pad to lily pad. A phrogger “hops around” from house to house. This differs from couch surfing where people you know allow you to sleep on your couch.
At first look, this sounds like an urban legend. But, apparently, there have been instances of it around the world. The singer George Michael had someone living under his floorboards! for four days in 2012. And in Japan a homeless woman was found living on the top shelf of a closet. She’d been there an entire year before she was detected. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/may/31/japan
Attic, basements, crawlspaces, sheds in the backyard all could be places where an unauthorized person could live.
This came to my attention because Lifetime has a new series “Phrogging: Hider In My House” coming to their channel next week. Of course, I’ll check it out. Then there’s the 2019 film called “I See You”. Haven’t seen it, but now I think I should.
I admit this boggles my brain and scares me a little as well. I immediately looked around my house to figure out if there’s anyplace someone could live without us knowing it. Couldn’t find any. At least I don’t think so.
Of course, the mystery writer brain of mine started thinking about possible stories related to phrogging. So many possibilities, so many scenarios come to mind. I’ll let this percolate in the back of my brain. Someday I’ll wake up with the idea of the story I want to write.
If you want to creep yourself out watch this YouTube video:
Have any of you read/written any stories about phrogging? Has this actually happened to anyone? (I’m hoping the answer is no to that last question!)
Now that I've creeped myself out enough, I need to go watch some cute cat videos. Suggestions welcome.
4 comments:
Very interesting and sparked several story ideas. It's not something that worries me, though. I've always kept a dog. Corgis have those big ears for a reason - mine can hear our car pull into the driveway with the windows closed, the AC running and the TV on. If someone were in our house, Sammie would be on him like flies on honey.
Sybil, there is a wonderful book called The Wrong Family wherein a homeless woman is in a family's house and learns all their secrets. It's a terrific story!
Tom, sounds like Sammie is a great watchdog!
Charlotte, I will check out that book. Sounds interesting.
My cat Penelope is a Maine Coon rescue. She likes to have to have the door open that leads deon a flight of steps to the outside door and from that landing down the steps to the basement. Sometimes she goes downstairs and hangs out there, but a lot of time she just wants an escape route if she is tired of my dog bouncing around. I think occasionally about having that door open when it gets dark -- about someone who might have gotten in from outside and gone down into the basement. But when neither dog nor cat seem concerned, I assume it's okay. . .and I do lock the kitchen door before going to bed.
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