This year, squatters have taken over properties around the country, causing lengthy court proceedings and thousands of dollars in damages.
Following a series of high-profile squatter instances, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, West Virginia, and New York enacted legislation this year to limit squatting, enhance criminal penalties, or legally enable protracted removal proceedings in court.
1. Squatter charged after allegedly taking over $1M property, getting homeowner arrested for changing locks
According to the Queens District Attorney, on February 29, Brian Rodriguez forced his way back into Adele Andaloro’s $1 million home in Queens, New York, after she had changed the locks, shoving his way in as she attempted to keep the door closed.
When he claimed to be a legitimate renter and Andaloro attempted to legally evict him, police had no choice but to remove Andaloro from the property; in New York, it is illegal to turn off utilities, change locks, or remove the belongings of someone claiming to be a tenant.
She was forced to take her case to the Queens District Attorney, who initiated an inquiry. Two months after Andaloro was handcuffed by police on her own home, Rodriguez was ultimately arrested and pled not guilty to a five-count indictment.
Rodriguez, 35, is charged with second-degree burglary, fourth-degree grand larceny, fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen items, second-degree criminal trespassing, and fourth-degree criminal mischief. Although he has been taken from Andaloro’s home, the criminal case against him continues.
2. New York squatters allegedly killed woman, stuffed her in duffel bag
A juvenile squatter pair allegedly beat New York mother Nadia Vitel to death when she discovered them squatting in her Manhattan apartment in March.
Vitel, 52, was discovered dead in a duffel bag buried beneath a pile of clothing in her 19th-floor East 31st Street apartment by her son on March 14, Fox News Digital previously reported. Her pet puppy was alone at the scene.
Halley Tejada, 19, and Kensley Alston, 18, fled the scene toward Pennsylvania in Vitel’s Lexus SUV after stomping on her and stuffing her into the bag while she was still breathing, according to prosecutors.
Before being apprehended nine days later, the pair went on a shopping spree using Vitel’s credit cards. In a press statement, District Attorney Alvin Bragg stated that they purchased clothing, food, AirPods, a PlayStation 5, and a diamond ring.
Tejada and Alston were charged with second-degree murder, burglary, robbery, illegal possession of stolen property, grand larceny, and concealing a human corpse, according to their indictments.
3. Wyoming realtor gets anti-squatter legislation moving after terrifying encounter
Even Wyoming, America’s least populous state, has seen squatters take over their homes. Ronna Boril, who has been selling property in the state for five decades, was instrumental in enacting new anti-squatter legislation following her own harrowing confrontation.
She told Fox News Digital that her fight with squatters began after she removed a previous authorized tenant from her house due to nonpayment.
“I thought the property was vacant,” she explained. “I was going into the property, and I heard footsteps, and I thought, ‘What the heck?'”
Then she noticed a huge, unknown man at the top of the steps.
“He says, ‘Who are you and what are you doing in this property?'” Boril recalls. “I asked, ‘Who are you and what are you doing on this property? “I could ask you the same thing.”
Suddenly, “there were men coming out of all corners of the house like cockroaches,” Boril claimed.
Five additional guys emerged and claimed to have a lease on the home, but they were unable to present any documents. Boril said she has owned the Casper building since the 1980s.
She stated that she would return to the police in the morning, but both the local police and the sheriff’s department informed her that they could not assist and that she would have to pursue the matter in civil court.
“The next morning, I returned with a large fellow.” We unlocked, and they were gone. “But the place was trashed: filthy clothing, filthy mattresses, needles, and drug paraphernalia everywhere,” she claimed. “I began de-trashing the property. It cost me between $15,000 and $18,000.
At that moment, she phoned state senator Jim Anderson. Both were surprised to learn that squatting was not limited to coastal regions such as California and New York.
The Wyoming law, which was adopted 10-4 by the state legislature’s Joint Judiciary Committee, must now be approved by the full Senate. If passed, the bill would make squatting involving property destruction a felony punishable by up to ten years in jail and a $10,000 fine.
4. Texas homeowners who finally evicted squatter ‘treated like criminals’
After ultimately evicting a contractor-turned-squatter from their new house, a pair of Texas homeowners said law enforcement treated them unfairly throughout the two-month struggle.
Yudith Matthews and Navy veteran Abram Mendez, who bought the San Antonio property to accommodate their growing family, felt “powerless” amid a judicial system that “takes advantage of homeowners … and the working class” over “entitled” squatters, even when their safety was compromised.
When the couple hired a handyman to repair their new home, he requested to stay on a couch inside the property. When they learned he had gathered an alarming amount of belongings inside, they contacted the San Antonio Police Department.
He had not been in the house for the required 30 days to be labeled a squatter under Texas property law when police were contacted on Feb. 29, but the couple claims authorities made no attempt to verify his opposing account or even check his identification.
After a lengthy legal process and multiple confrontations, the married couple removed the squatter two months later. They said they spent approximately $17,000 on damages, utilities, and court expenses, depleting the “last actual dollars” in their account.
5. Squatter pirates in Florida setting up homes on abandoned boats
Squatters are increasingly relocating into derelict boats strewn along Florida’s shore, according to authorities seeking to clear the boats and squatters.
“We’ve seen a tremendous increase, actually, throughout the county,” Martin County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Michael Dougherty told local reporters in January. “You’ll have vagrants squatting on the boat, it falling apart, there have been several instances where the boats have come loose and ran into the docks.”
The Martin County Sheriff’s Office says it has long dealt with abandoned boats left to rust along the Florida coast, but officials claim homeless people are increasingly taking up residence on them. Jupiter Island and Jensen Beach are among the cities that make up the county, which is located on Florida’s southeast coast.
“One of the byproducts of having a lot of vessels in our area is that some of these vessels tend to get rundown hard and become inoperable,” Chief Deputy John Budensiek told Fox News. “And, as they become inoperable, some of these owners will abandon them or sell them to someone who will not re-register the vessel. These folks, in turn, remain aboard these boats or operate them until they are absolutely unusable. And they sink, or they leak fuel, if they have the capacity to carry fuel, or they leak human waste, and they pose a serious environmental risk to us.”