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Someone broke into his house. But they didn’t take anything ... they just cleaned it.

Nate Roman was surprised to come home and find this in his bathroom.Nate Roman

When Nate Roman came home from work on May 15, he could tell that a stranger had been in his house.

Roman, 44, lives in a single-family home on a typical suburban tree-lined street in Marlborough. He said it’s possible that he forgot to lock his back door, because whoever entered his house didn’t break anything to gain entry.

But here’s the strange part: whoever ventured into his home didn’t take anything. They just thoroughly cleaned his house.

Roman looked around and saw that they neatly made the beds, vacuumed the rugs, and scrubbed the toilets. They even crafted ornate origami roses on the toilet paper rolls in his bathrooms, he said. Every room in his house was cleaned, except for the kitchen.

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He thought the whole thing was “weird and creepy,” and reported the incident to police.

Marlborough Police Sergeant Daniel Campbell said the department hasn’t heard of any other situations like this one.

“We have not received any reports similar to this in other locations, and we have no suspects at this time,” Campbell said.

Roman said he still doesn’t know who did it. The best theory he could come up with is that a housekeeping service mistakenly went to the wrong address and showed up at his house.

“It’s funny now, but didn’t feel funny at the time,” Roman said. “I kept the toilet paper roses as souvenirs.”


Emily Sweeney can be reached at esweeney@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @emilysweeney.