US police say a man cut a hole in a woman's couch and hid in the carved-out space until she came home.
The woman sat on the couch and felt a bump in the cushions move.
She jumped up and the man emerged from his hiding place, knocking a mobile phone out of her hand, said police in Newburgh, New York.
The woman was on the phone with a friend when she entered her apartment because she had filed an earlier complaint against the man and was worried he might be there.
Police said she had asked her friend to stay on the line and call police if something went wrong.
When officers arrived, they found the man, David Joe Limones, and the 22-year-old woman arguing on the apartment's balcony.
Limones, 27, faces burglary and other charges.
He is being held on $US20,000 ($A21,000) bail.