Los Angeles home inspectors send squatters packing before changing locks
Video shows California's "Squatter Squad" removing a dozen individuals trying to take over someone else's house. (Credit: Lando Thomas/LOCAL NEWS X /TMX)
Video shows a team of Los Angeles home inspectors giving a group of a dozen squatters a reality check before they entered the home, changed the locks and boarded up the windows.
"The police are gonna come," one of the squatters tells the inspectors in the front yard in cellphone video recorded earlier this month in the frontyard of a San Fernando Valley home.
"That's fine," the inspector replies. "We're coming in."
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A still image taken from cellphone video shows the squatters eventually beginning to drag their own belongings out of the house as home inspectors took a look at the house they had invaded. (Squatter Squad/LOCAL NEWS X /TMX)
A group known as the Squatter Squad took the video and says it has been legally removing squatters from private property since 2018.
They use various legal techniques, applicable on a case by case basis, to remove people who invade homes and refuse to leave.
"This was a very tricky and complex job," said Lando Thomas, a Squatter Squad member.
The intruders were under the impression that any entry into the house required a three-day notice obtained through court. However, they were wrong. A building inspection only requires a 24-hour notice and does not have to go through the court, he said.
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A still image taken from cellphone video shows the squatters eventually beginning to drag their own belongings out of the house as home inspectors took a look at the house they had invaded. (Squatter Squad/LOCAL NEWS X /TMX)
"They were just babbling nonsense," he added.
However, the squatters were seen taking their own video, repeatedly insisting the inspectors had to go through court before entering, and warning that they had called the police.
"We're gonna press charges," says one squatter, with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and holding a can of soda.
"That's fine," the inspector replies. "Take me to court."
WATCH: Los Angeles home inspectors send squatters packing before changing locks
The owner sent a team of workers who showed up with their own port-a-potty and tools.
Video shows that when officers did arrive, they stood in the street and let the inspectors do their work. The squatters wound up packing their belongings and leaving before the Squatter Squad installed no-trespassing signs, put a new lock on the gate and boarded up the windows.
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Earlier this month, police in New York City arrested a woman who said a group of squatters moved into her $1 million house and refused to leave.
Police arrived after the squatters called 911 but did not stop the home inspectors from carrying out their work. (Squatter Squad/LOCAL NEWS X /TMX)
She had inherited the property from her parents when they died, then found squatters living inside.
She called the police, who escorted two strange men off of the property, according to the local ABC affiliate.
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However, when she changed the locks, one of the squatters came back with another police officer and accused her of breaking into the house. She was escorted out in handcuffs, but police declined to press charges on the burglary allegation.
An NYPD spokesperson told Fox News Digital she had been released with a summons for unlawful eviction and was not arrested.
Fox News' Mitch Picasso contributed to this report.
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