The Tampa Bay Times said Scott Swift returned to his home in the Vinoy Place Towers in St Petersburg on January 17 just moments after 30-year-old Terrence Hoover used an emergency escape stairwell to climb 13 floors to enter it.

The men fought before Hoover ran away, the paper reports, citing police records.

Hoover has a lengthy arrest record that includes domestic violence by strangulation, aggravated battery, burglary, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and kidnapping and false imprisonment, the paper said.

Swift picked Hoover out of a photo lineup.

Hoover could not be found, however, until last week, when he was arrested on burglary charges. He was being held Monday on $US50,000 bond.

Taylor Swift was not with her father and it is unclear whether the intruder targeted the home. The 30-year-old singer lives elsewhere.

Hoover's mother told the newspaper that her son got lost while searching for his estranged wife and should only be charged with trespassing.

Australian Associated Press