CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — A realtor with Keller Williams Realty is warning others in the business to be cautious after she came to face-to-face with a homeless man that was squatting in one of her newly-sold properties on Monday.    

Aneta Krauz has been in the business over a decade, but she says this incident was a first for her. 

Krauz tells 10 On Your Side she was doing a routine check of a home for a new buyer when she started to feel like she wasn’t alone in the home. 

“As I walk in, I already had the impression that there was a presence in the house and I just chose to neglect that. I’m like ‘I’m going crazy’,” said Krauz.

As she continued to inspect the home, she noticed a few odd things, like dirty clothes in one the bathrooms and the blinds closed. 

“I’m like again, maybe the contractors left it behind,” Krauz thought.

Krauz says she went into another bedroom when a sweaty stench hit her and she noticed the closet door in the room wasn’t closed right. 

“I open the door and there is a man standing there, so my first reaction was to scream and run and I wear high heels, so I run in those heels. I’m standing in the front door the adrenaline is still rushing and I don’t see him coming down, so I go back in, I don’t know why I did that, but I say ‘Get out! You are trespassing! You need to leave!’, ” she explained.

Krauz says the man explained to her that he was homeless and didn’t mean any harm. “At that point I didn’t feel threatened by him. I said ‘you need to leave’,” she said.

While her story ended peacefully, Krauz took to Facebook to warn others in the business about what happened because realtors are often checking out their properties alone. 

“Fortunately my story is here sitting with you versus not being here. It’s important to spread that awareness,” Krauz added. 

Krauz says from now on she is changing the way she does business and will be getting a taser or pepper spray to carry with her. She says she also plans on FaceTiming someone when she’s doing look-throughs in the future.