A maintenance man turned squatter hunter argues that squatting should be reclassified as a “terrorist act” amid Atlanta’s unwanted tenant crisis.
Homes in the Atlanta area are becoming prostitution and drug dens as squatters take over empty properties.
More than 1,200 homes have been invaded by squatters and owners have to evict unwanted residents themselves or wait months for the police to arrive.
Flash Shelton, founder of the United Handyman Association and SquatterHunters.com, had his first experience evicting squatters when they broke into his mother’s house last year.
Two women took over the Simi Valley home after their mother put it up for sale following their father’s death.
A maintenance man turned squatter hunter argues that home squatting should be reclassified as a “terrorist act” amid Atlanta’s home invasion crisis.
Two women took over the Simi Valley home after their mother put it up for sale following their father’s death.
Shelton had to wait for the women to leave the house one day and then he went in and forbade them to enter again.
Authorities were unable to help Shelton due to the complex laws surrounding squatters’ rights, so he took matters into his own hands.
Authorities were unable to help Shelton due to the complex laws surrounding squatters’ rights, so he took matters into his own hands.
He spent days studying the laws and managed to get rid of the women by drawing up a lease with his mother that designated him as the legal resident of the house.
Shelton had to wait for the women to leave the house one day and then he went in and forbade them to enter again.
The expert offers his squatter removal services to others struggling with unwanted squatters and has successfully helped several California homeowners.
He now offers advice to Atlanta-area homeowners who have been caught up in the squatter crisis.
‘Squatters’ rights were never intended to allow the acquisition of held residential properties. Until we make it criminal, this will continue to happen.”
“My advice to Atlanta owners would be the same advice they would give to any owner,” Shelton said. ‘First of all, know your laws, know your rights and think safely. This is your house, I get it, but it’s property and it’s not worth your life.
In October, an Atlanta home was occupied by squatters who ran an illegal strip club inside on weekends and kept horses on the property.
The FBI had to intervene and arrested four people who had moved in without permission at 4951 Wewatta Street in South Fulton.
The squatters vandalized the 4,000-square-foot, five-bedroom, three-bathroom home.
Exclusive photos show the property at 4951 Wewatta Street in South Fulton, Atlanta, where four squatters were said to be running an illegal strip club.
A SWAT team arrested the four squatters after neighbors complained about the stench of marijuana, gunshots and live horses at the location.
Photos from inside the house after the FBI cleaned it showed the hallways eerily empty, except for a cartoonish green lizard painted on a wall.
Trash littered the property with a half-finished water bottle, a crumpled plastic bag and a bottle of Pink Whitney, the popular lemonade-infused vodka, atop a railing.
Neighbors said on weekends they had a strip club, loud parties and car races in the street.
A neighbor said: ‘They would get live horses. One day they had live horses.
Four youths (DeAnthony Maddox, Jeremy Wheat, Kelvin Hall and Tarahsjay Forde) were arrested at the scene.
All four were booked into the Fulton County Jail on multiple charges, including several counts of theft by receiving stolen property.
Shelton says squatters who have turned properties into drug houses are bringing a whole new element to neighborhoods that don’t know how to adapt to danger.
The dangers that come with illicit activities, such as drugs and prostitution, pose safety risks for children, the elderly and everyone, Shelton explains.
Law enforcement is not equipped to handle these situations and their hands are tied because they legally cannot intervene in most cases.
“As soon as the authorities say there’s nothing we can do, then I would say contact me or someone like me because there are alternatives besides spending a year in civil court,” Shelton said.
The only thing law enforcement can legally do when confronted with squatters is remain on the property to maintain security.
Shelton said he would take advantage of that right and make sure he stayed in the house while the squatters were there.
The massive 4,300-square-foot property where Vincent Simon is staying has five bedrooms and five bathrooms, Zillow claims, and is valued at around $495,000.
Lt. Col. Dahlia Daure said a man with a long criminal history was occupying her Atlanta-area home while she was on active duty and he refuses to move out.
Last year, Lt. Col. Dahlia Daure, deployed in the Army, said she felt “violated” when she learned that a man was occupying her home while she was on active duty.
Daure told local media that Vincent Simon, a man convicted of weapons, drugs and robbery, lived in his $500,000 home.
The Army officer had been away from her Ellenwood residence on duty in Chicago and only discovered she had moved out when the home was in the process of being sold.
‘I felt violated. “If I hadn’t been serving my country, I would have been at home,” Daure said. WSB-TV.