"Sorry for taking pictures with a potato, but it was the best I could do in these circumstances. I'll try and give an update on what the cops find and stuff. " IMGUR / TwoBiteBrownie

"Then the f**king dolls. These little sh*** are creepy." IMGUR / TwoBiteBrownie

"We also found this key, we have not the slightest clue what it unlocks." IMGUR / TwoBiteBrownie

"Here are the things that they had with them. This elephant was hidden under the blankets." IMGUR / TwoBiteBrownie

"You would find this. Someone was living in our walls. IN OUR WALLS. That is my Halloween candy. That someone came into my room, took from my bag, and then brought back in here. Banana peel for scale. About 30 seconds after taking this picture, we realized what it meant and got the f**k out of there." IMGUR / TwoBiteBrownie

"This crawlspace was about halfway down. It looked empty, but if you crawled in.." IMGUR / TwoBiteBrownie

"Here's a shot of what it looked like from the top. At the bottom, the stairs led into a wall. Seemingly pointless, right?" IMGUR / TwoBiteBrownie

"There's a f**king spiral staircase in here. So we went down.. bad idea." IMGUR / TwoBiteBrownie

"My little brother and me were messing around, and I pushed him into the shelf. When he fell, he pulled out the bookshelf with him. We always assumed it was just built into the wall." IMGUR / TwoBiteBrownie

"I'm currently staying at a friends house.. Here's why. I moved into a house about a year ago. The previous owners built the house in the early 2000's, and moved to India two years ago. This picture above shows my parents' room. Then the other day, we found this." IMGUR / TwoBiteBrownie

A user of the online image hosting service 'imgur' has posted pictures purporting to show a set of secret stairs hidden behind a bookcase, along with photographs suggesting someone may be living in his walls.

The story and pictures were posted on 'imgur' yesterday and were quickly picked up and posted to Reddit.

TwoBiteBrownie's gallery of images can be viewed above

The story and the images have prompted fierce debate over their veracity with many suggesting the story is a hoax. Almost equal numbers of people, however, appear to have been completely taken in.

The post begins with a picture of a bookcase accompanied by the caption: "I'm currently staying at a friends house.. Here's why."

The poster, who calls themselves 'TwoBiteBrownie' continues: "I moved into a house about a year ago. The previous owners built the house in the early 2000's, and moved to India two years ago. This picture above shows my parents' room. Then the other day, we found this."

The next image shows the bookcase opens from the wall to reveal a staircase. "My little brother and me were messing around, and I pushed him into the shelf. When he fell, he pulled out the bookshelf with him. We always assumed it was just built into the wall," he writes.

'TwoBiteBrownie' goes on to post further pictures (see gallery above) showing the spiral staircase continuing straight into the wall. They go on to post pictures of a hidden crawl space full of sweet packets, which the user claims were from their "Halloween candy", along with dolls, a key and a strange elephant.

The pictures show the crawl space also contained a number of creepy looking dolls. As yet no update has been posted though

'TwoBiteBrownie' has promised to give an update once the police report back.

TwoBiteBrownie's update

So, what do you think? The creepiest hoax ever? Or just plain creepy?

Belfast Telegraph