On December 19, concerned by his apparent disappearance, Stanley Carter's friends filed a missing person report on him. On Friday, 26th December, the long-lost Carter emerged from the attic of a neighbor's home - wearing the neighbor's clothes.

Carter's unwitting host, Stacy Ferrance, had heard noises but thought they were caused by the three children. She notified police on Christmas Day when cash, a laptop computer and an iPod disappeared, then called police again the next day when she found footprints in her bedroom closet, beneath the trap-door to the attic.

Carter kept a log of everything he took from the residence, which he labeled 'Stanley's Christmas List.'

He was charged with several counts of burglary, theft, receiving stolen property and criminal trespass after accessing the attic shared by the Ferrance family and their neighbors - the very folk who had reported Carter missing in the first place.

Chron.com