A Houston mother and her daughter say they were jolted awake by a deafening crash early Tuesday morning, only to discover a strange man breaking through the ceiling of their apartment.

Desiree Malone said the incident happened around 4 a.m., when she heard a loud bang and rushed to investigate. When she turned on the light, she was stunned to see a man dangling through a jagged hole in the ceiling, clutching a wooden beam to keep himself from falling completely into the apartment.

“When I turned the light on, there was a man hanging from the attic, holding onto the beam so that he wouldn’t fall all the way through to our apartment,” Malone told Fox 26 Houston.

Malone said she immediately screamed and demanded to know who he was and what he was doing there. She described the man as appearing “out of his mind” and intoxicated, saying he seemed disoriented and mumbled his words.

According to Malone, the man eventually pulled himself back up into the attic. From above, she could hear what sounded like him talking to someone else, further heightening her fear. In the chaos that followed, Malone called police while her daughter ran back to her bedroom to get dressed, leaving the two briefly separated during the ordeal.

It remains unclear how the man accessed the attic space. Malone said she and a neighbor had noticed strange noises coming from their attics for nearly two months prior to the incident but never imagined someone might be hiding above them.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that deputies arrested a man in connection with the incident. Authorities said he appeared intoxicated and was taken into custody on criminal mischief charges. His name has not been released, and an official arrest report has not yet been made public.

As maintenance crews worked to repair the gaping hole left in her ceiling, Malone said the damage went beyond drywall.

“I don’t feel safe here anymore,” she said, adding that she is now looking to move out of the apartment. “I just want some kind of help from this apartment.”

For Malone and her daughter, the terrifying moment has turned their home into a place of fear — one loud bang away from another nightmare.