6 suspected squatters arrested outside $500K Atlanta home less than 2 weeks after new law criminalizing squatting took effect



Six suspected squatters were arrested outside an Atlanta-area home worth more than a half-million dollars — and thanks to a new law, they may soon be gone for good.

"This is the worst criminal activity I’ve ever seen in my life."

The house at 4300 Caveat Court in the Hampton Oaks neighborhood of South Fulton, Georgia, was supposed to be vacant. It's estimated worth, according to Zillow, is $518,400.

But on Christmas day 2023, several squatters allegedly took advantage of the vacant home and moved in as though they owned it. Neighbors knew no one should be living in the home, but there was little they could do about the alleged squatting because at the time, Georgia law treated squatting as a civil matter.

"The ringleader, we see him walking his dog all the time," said Hampton Oaks Homeowners Association vice president Kendra Snorton. "He's very courteous and polite when he interacts with the community."

However, the suspected squatters may have told on themselves when they allegedly broke into another home in the neighborhood while the owner was out of town, stole the owner's car, and parked it on the driveway of the home they'd been occupying, rent-free.

"When the police showed up, the car was behind us in the yard," said Hampton Oaks HOA president Mel Keyton. "That's how we put two and two together."

All six suspected squatters were arrested. Two were charged with felonies. The other four were charged with misdemeanor trespassing. The vehicle was returned to its rightful owner.

But the drama didn't end there. The suspected squatters then bonded out of jail and came back and broke into a neighborhood home within 24 hours, Keyton told Fox News, though whether they allegedly broke into the home they had been occupying or the home where they stole the car is unclear. Keyton said the suspects were quickly rearrested.

"This is the worst criminal activity I’ve ever seen in my life," said Keyton, who's running as a Democrat for the Georgia state House.

"It's dangerous," he added. "They use our amenities. They walk through the neighborhood. They break into houses."

Thankfully, on April 24, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law the Georgia Squatter Reform Act, which took effect immediately. The new law makes squatting in Georgia a misdemeanor criminal offense that can result in a $1,000 fine, a year behind bars, or both. The charge can even be elevated to a felony if a squatter were to forge documents to further the squatting scheme.

With some 1,200 homes in and around Atlanta inhabited by squatters, this new anti-squatting law gives hope to beleaguered residents.

"Hopefully, it won’t get this bad [again]," Keyton said. "Hopefully, we won’t have to use this amount of police."

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WATCH: Joe Rogan gives his two cents on the ‘squatters' rights’ epidemic: 'It’s just law and order'



A few days ago, Joe Rogan had comedian and actor Joey Diaz on “The Joe Rogan Experience” to discuss a range of topics, including the wave of infuriating cases across the country involving “squatters' rights.”

Squatters' rights, formally called adverse possession, is a legal principle in which someone who has no lawful ownership or rentership over a property is permitted to continue living there without the rightful owner’s permission.

It’s easy to see why there are so many squatters' rights cases popping up all over the country — it’s basically grand theft with zero consequences for the squatter and maximum consequences for the rightful property owner.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), however, has taken charge of the issue by signing a law into effect eliminating squatters' rights in the state.

“In Georgia, there's a thousand houses right now that people are squatting in” but “not Florida,” Rogan told Diaz. “In Florida, they’re like, ‘F**k you.”’

“[DeSantis] is like, ‘In Florida, that does not fly. There is no way anyone's going to squat in your house in Florida,’ which is what people want to hear,” he continued, adding that DeSantis’ anti-squatter policy “should be in every state,” because it’s just “logical.”

“It has nothing to do with racism or xenophobia or white privilege or any of these dumb things they try to attach to this. It's just law and order. We have to have a set of laws that we all abide by if we're going to have a peaceful society where you don't create victims and you don't empower criminals, and the fact that that is complicated in 2024 is so strange to me,” Rogan said.

“It ain’t rocket science,” says Dave Rubin, who applauds Rogan’s words.

To see the clip of Rogan ripping into squatters' rights and praising Florida’s new anti-squatter law, watch the clip below.


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Woman says judge refused to evict squatters in her house to avoid them being homeless over Christmas — while she was homeless



A woman says that squatters moved into her home while she left the state and when she tried to have them evicted, a judge allowed them to stay at the house in order to keep them from being homeless over the holidays.

Terri Boyette told NewsNation that she had left her home in Texas in order to go take care of her sick mother in Florida when her neighbor called her and asked her if she knew that someone was living in her home.

Boyette called police, but they told her that since the squatters had potentially been at the home for more than ten days that she would need to start the process of eviction.

That process took eight months, and when she regained access to the home, she said it was thoroughly trashed and her appliances had been stolen. She also realized that the culprits were people she had previously hired.

“I hired them to do some painting and renovating. I was gonna be gone for about three weeks, so I told them to stop work. Apparently one of them broke in and decided to rent it out to other people using drugs,” Boyette told NewsNation.

“They stole all of my items, from the dining table to the entertainment center," she added.

"It's insanity."

Even worse, when the time came to evict the squatters, Boyette said a judge refused to do so ahead of Christmas to avoid them being homeless over the holidays, even though it meant Boyette, the owner of the house, was without a home.

“She extended the appeal to January because she didn’t want anyone to be homeless over the holidays, and I’m like — I’m homeless over the holidays,” she said to the New York Post.

Boyette said that she found crack pipes in her oven and hypodermic needles in a drawer.

“This is the craziest thing I’ve ever been through," she added. "It’s insanity."

In an update on her TikTok account, Boyette said that her insurance company was trying to avoid paying out the claim because she had not filed a police report. She said she had the police tell the company that they would not file a report over a civil matter.

Here's more about the bizarre episode:

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TikToker encourages illegal aliens to find vacant homes and become squatters: 'We can seize it!'



A TikTok video from a Venezuelan immigrant went mega-viral after he encouraged illegal aliens to find vacant homes and become squatters.

Leonel Moreno told his half a million followers on TikTok that they could use squatter's rights in order to take over homes in the United States. Moreno said that he knew Africans who had taken over seven homes by using the adverse possession laws.

"I have thought about invading a house in the United States," said the man in Spanish. "I found out that there is a law that says that if a house is not inhabited, we can seize it."

He went on to claim that the law allowed people to seize homes that were in disrepair and dilapidated in order to fix them up and occupy them, which is a distortion and over-simplification of squatter's rights that vary widely from state to state.

"Thanks, Democrats."

Moreno's video on TikTok garnered millions of views and received more than 8.5 million views in one repost on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Many responded with angry hostility at the thought of his encouraging illegal aliens to seize homes.

"Break into my house, and you’re getting a dose of lead higher than that of your elementary school water fountain you drank out of as a kid," read one response.

"They take your home. And they make you the criminal. Democrats suck up to them for votes to replace you. The corporate media will ignore you. Thanks Democrats. Thanks Joe Biden," responded podcaster John Kass.

"I think this guy is going to learn about the 2nd amendment pretty soon," read another reply.

"Unless these squatters start targeting celebrities and politicians, Democrats aren't going to do a single thing to stop this bulls*** from happening. Once again they choose criminals and illegals over law abiding citizens. They truly are scumbags," wrote another detractor.

Some claimed that right-wingers had paid Moreno to make the video in order to smear liberal policies.

Others said Moreno should beware of trying his business strategy in certain red states.

"He tries it in Texas, he'll be occupying a shallow, unmarked grave," said one user.

Moreno lives in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, with his partner and his child.

Here's the video of Moreno's business idea:

— (@)

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Homeowner of $1 million house ARRESTED for changing door locks: "Unlawful eviction" of squatters



A New York homeowner has recently been arrested following a standoff with alleged squatters who have been refusing to leave her family home.

The homeowner, Adele Andaloro, was changing the locks on her $1 million home in Flushing, Queens, when she was taken in by law enforcement and charged with unlawful eviction. Andaloro says she inherited the home from her parents when they died and planned to sell the property until the standoff with the squatters began.

“It’s not fair that I, as the homeowner, have to be going through this,” Andaloro said.

In New York City, a person can claim “squatters rights” after only being on the property for 30 days. To make matters worse, it’s illegal for the homeowner to take any action to keep the squatters out of his or her home.

These actions include changing the locks, turning off utilities, or removing the belongings of the squatters — who are then legally “tenants.”

Pat Gray is disturbed.

“This is the new America,” he says, “You can’t hinder the squatters. How dare you try to keep them out of the home you’re paying for, who do you think you are?”

“For whatever reason, the law favors the criminal,” Gray adds.


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Watch Landlord’s Reaction as She Is Arrested for Evicting Squatter in This State

Watch Landlord’s Reaction as She Is Arrested for Evicting Squatter in This State