An ex-boyfriend from 12 years ago came back to haunt a woman - literally.

The victim, a 41-year-old mother of five from Rock Hill, S.C., who asked that she only be identified as Tracy, said she heard strange noises and noticed nails were coming through her ceiling when she returned home last Saturday.

Tracy and her two older sons went to check the attic, but didn't find anything unusual.

"The kids were saying, 'You're getting old. You're hearing things. You're crazy,'" Tracy said.

But Tracy couldn't shake the uneasy feeling. As she used her laptop that night, plaster fell onto it and her bed from the movement in her attic.

"I kept hearing a bumpin', thumpin' noise," she told ABCNews.com. "It was either something or somebody was in the attic. I know the sounds of my home."

Around 2:30 a.m., Tracy was awakened by the racket in the attic. She called her nephew to investigate.

He walked to the end of the attic, where a light had been out, and apparently found Tracy's ex-boyfriend, who was not identified in a police report.

The intruder fled the scene on foot and has not been apprehended.

Tracy found cups of urine and feces in the attic, she said. She believed her ex, who had just completed a 90-day jail sentence for stealing her truck, had been living in her attic for at least a few days.

"We are still figuring out how he got in the house," Tracy said. "I want him charged. I feel violated."