One break-in happens every three minutes across Australia. Here are some ideas for ways in which you can protect your house while you are away.

Massachusetts dad Nate Roman, 44, his bizarre experience on Facebook, describing how while he was at work on May 15, a stranger entered his house and instead of stealing or destroying anything, whoever the mystery intruder was cleaned and tidied every room in the house, right down to scrubbing the toilets and leaving toilet paper roses.

Mr Roman found the experience to be “creepy AF” and theorises that a local cleaning service must have got an address wrong and because he didn’t arm his home alarm and may also have forgotten to lock the back door, the service would have been able to enter and not realise their mistake.

Mr Roman’s post has attracted hundreds of comments, with Facebook friends and strangers offering other theories about why the house was cleaned.

Xtine Santackas suggested, “This actually happens more often then you realised. If the previous owners had a cleaning company and you didn’t change the locks, their old cleaning service still has a set of keys to your house. It’s a human that creates the schedule for the crew that day, and humans make mistakes. The cleaning company that I used to have did this to me once. They went to my old address and cleaned my old apartment instead of my new one. Unfortunately, you have no idea which company came in to clean. My suggestion is to change the locks. Oh, and you should probably lock up and set the alarm when you leave.”

Anna Paula agreed with the mistaken house cleaner theory. “I clean houses … I already entered the wrong house once, because the houses outside were all the same … but when I entered I saw that it was not the right house I died laughing, the door was open …”

Brenda Marble shared that she once had a friend who would “randomly” clean — suggesting that someone was trying to do an anonymous favour for Mr Roman and his family.

Ronda Rodgers Agee took it one step further: “Or his house was so disgustingly unkept that a friend or relative came in to surprise him. Hint, hint. CLEAN!”

“I still have no idea who did this, it’s all really crazy,” Mr Roman told The DailyMail.

“Great thing happened! Be happy and let it go … pay it forward!” posted Cindy Perez Davern.