A family-of-four were left "traumatised" after allegedly catching the landlord of their Wexford holiday rental hiding behind a makeshift wall during their stay.
Speaking to Ireland's RTE Radio One, mother Therese said the “blood drained from her face” when her husband made the bizarre discovery on Saturday night.
The family had arrived at the rental property at 5pm after renting it on Booking.com for a one-night getaway to celebrate a birthday in the family.
The landlord met the family at the rental and offered to give them a tour.
As they made their way around the house, Therese noticed the landlord had left a bundle of clothes in the dryer.
Asking whether he would be back to collect them at a later time, the landlord insisted he would not be returning.
Thinking nothing of it, the family went out that evening for the birthday party - but the mother made a peculiar discovery upon their return.
She noticed that the dryer was now empty and the landlord's clothes were nowhere to be seen - leaving her convinced that he had returned to the rental.
She said: “I felt a little bit weird. So I said to my partner, ‘Will you go upstairs and just check all the rooms?'
The family-of-four booked the one-night getaway to Wexford to celebrate a family brithday
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“And he went up, and he came back down. He was feeling a little bit weird.
“So then we didn’t initially notice that there was like this partition-looking wall.
“It was actually a really thin piece of plasterboard with a nail and there were no nails on one part.
"So my partner went, 'What's behind that?' because it looked like it could move.
"When he went to move it, it came off. And it was just darkness behind it, and I heard: 'Hey, hey!'
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The mother noticed the dryer was empty and the landlord's clothes were nowhere to be seen
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“We obviously died. And I went, ‘Is there somebody behind that wall?’ And my partner went, ‘Yes.’
The mother said that although the man did not initially emerge, she immediately told her husband to grab the children and get out of the property.
She said her children had been so terrified by the discovery, they had to be physically dragged out of the holiday rental.
The family uncovered a small room with a single bed and a television, where the landlord allegedly had been staying while renting out the property to earn some extra cash.
He then met the family outside, where he is said to have pretended he had no idea who they were.
The Irish Gardai confirmed they had attended the scene after receiving a call about the incident
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Therese said her children will never feel safe in another rental property again after the bizarre episode.
“You just don’t feel safe even in my own home now. It’s crazy, I know I am safe, but I’m still like psychologically affected by it. It’s terrifying," she said.
A Booking.com spokesman told The Sun: “We take safety and security very seriously.
“As soon as we were made aware of this incident, we launched an investigation into the property, which is ongoing.”
Meanwhile, the Irish Gardai confirmed they had attended the scene after receiving a call about the incident.
“Gardai in Gorey were called to a residential property in Gorey, Co Wexford on Sunday, July 20," a spokesman said.
“Gardai responded to the matter and no criminal offence disclosed, at this time.”