Custodian Found ‘Secretly Living’ Inside Middle School

A longtime New York school custodian was secretly living inside the very building he was paid to clean — turning an unused room into a hidden apartment after saying he had “nowhere else to go.”

Timothy Walters, 36, had worked in Albany schools for 17 years when he made the unusual decision to move into Hackett Middle School, where he served as head custodian.

For roughly six months, Walters quietly lived in a fourth-floor room above the school auditorium, outfitting the forgotten space with beds, a mini refrigerator, a futon and furniture.

“I had nowhere else to go,” Walters told the New York Post.

Walters said he had previously been staying with his younger sister and her boyfriend, but eventually felt his presence was creating problems for the couple.

At the same time, he said much of his income was going toward supporting his four teenage children.

“I was already paying my partner child support for our four teenage children and I didn’t have enough to get my own place,” he said.

Rather than tell his family what was really happening, Walters said he allowed his sister to believe he had found a legitimate apartment.

Instead, he moved into a room at the school that he said had been sitting unused for years.

“The layout had a futon bed and a bunch of old, older chairs and some furniture that’s just been sitting in there for who knows how long,” Walters told CBS 6.

He cleaned the room out and brought in multiple beds and a mini fridge, effectively transforming the school space into his own private studio.

The arrangement went even further on weekends.

Walters said his four teenage children sometimes stayed with him at the school while they were in his custody, apparently taking advantage of periods when the building was largely empty and few people would be around to notice.

For months, his secret living arrangement remained undiscovered.

Then school officials began looking into something completely unrelated.

During the last week of April, Albany City School District officials were reviewing surveillance footage as part of an investigation into other custodians suspected of submitting questionable overtime claims.

Walters was not accused of participating in the alleged overtime scheme.

But investigators noticed something else unusual on the security footage: Walters appeared to be at the school virtually all the time.

That discovery eventually exposed his hidden home.

The district suspended Walters without pay in May while the matter was investigated. He later resigned from his position on June 23, according to district spokesman Ron Lesko.

Walters said he had first acknowledged living inside the school the previous October.

Despite the bizarre circumstances, Walters said his financial situation had become increasingly difficult.

His base salary was reportedly about $64,000, and he said overtime pushed his total earnings to roughly $80,000 in 2025. But Walters said child support and the cost of providing for four children left him unable to afford housing of his own.

He admitted he knew turning part of a public school into his personal residence was against the rules.

“I knew what I was doing was wrong,” Walters said. “But I didn’t know what to do.”

“When your back is against the wall, sometimes you end up making choices you probably shouldn’t have made.”

Police initially charged Walters with trespassing after his secret apartment was discovered, but those charges were later dropped.

He is now staying with an uncle in a trailer park and said he is on a waiting list to get a place of his own.

Walters also said he has already received two job offers.

Meanwhile, his sister started a GoFundMe in hopes of helping him get back on his feet and find permanent housing after his unusual six-month stay inside the middle school finally came to an end.