12:59pm UK, Friday May 30, 2008

A Japanese man solved the riddle of his disappearing sushi when he discovered a woman squatting in his closet.

180 Sushi generic

Secret snacks raised suspicion

The 57-year-old man who lived alone - or so he thought - could not understand why food was vanishing from his fridge.

He installed a secutity camera in his home in the western city of Fukuoka and called the police when he saw images of someone walking around while he was out.

"We searched the house in the man's presence. We found the woman in the closet," said a local police spokesman.

The woman, named as 58-year-old Tatsuko Horikawa, was found in a flat storage space only just big enough for a person to squeeze into lying down.

She had sneaked a mattress and several plastic bottles into the cubby hole, police said.

They have since arrested the woman.

"She told police that she had nowhere to live," the spokesman said.

"She seems to have lived there for about a year, but not all the time."

It is unclear how she managed to enter the home undetected. Police suspect she might have been closet-hopping, moving from house to house.