I agree, they are gross....
They're actually pretty common in my area. They really like basements.... Every now and then one will find it's way up to the second floor by us. That's when I scream for hubby.... I have to clean up anything that comes out of the cats/dog and he has to take care of the bugs. It's a fair trade off if you ask me!
When my parent were remodeling the basement they REALLY stirred 'em up and we'd find one in every room of the house every day. We had some HUGE ones. I think the biggest one I saw was close to 6 inches long.
EEEEEEEEWWWWW. They aren't so bad now that the basement has been turned into a rec room and we got rid of all the clutter. I think most of 'em left once they realized we were taking over down there!