Woman found living in rooftop grocery store sign for nearly a year, Michigan cops say

Kate Linderman
Fri, May 10, 2024 




A 34-year-old woman made a home inside a grocery store’s rooftop sign for nearly a year, Michigan police said.

She had made the Family Fare market’s sign a home over the last year, adding flooring, a computer, printer and coffee maker to the enclosed sign, police in Midland told MLive.

She was discovered in April by contractors, who needed a ladder to reach the location, and was later asked to find a new place to live by police, the Detroit Free Press reported. According to police, there was no access door to the roof, WILX reported.

“They knocked on the door and she opened the door up and they essentially told her, ‘Hey, you can’t be here,’ and the interaction was rather brief. She fully understood,” Brennon Warren, a public information officer with the Midland Police Department, told the Detroit Free Press.

Police told WEYI the woman was offered housing resources, but she declined.

The store did not press criminal charges against the woman and plan to work with the woman to get her belongings back to her, police told WEYI.

Family Fare’s parent company, SpartanNash, said in a statement, “We are proud of our associates for responding to this situation with the utmost compassion and professionalism. Ensuring there is ample safe, affordable housing continues to be a widespread issue nationwide that our community needs to partner in solving. Out of respect for privacy for the individual involved, we will not be sharing further comment,” according to the Midland Daily News.

Midland is about a 130-mile drive northwest of Detroit.