You have to be kidding...

[PRB]

This is beyond my ability to comprehend:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/dannywestneat/2012101648_danny13.html (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/dannywestneat/2012101648_danny13.html)

Summary: House is for sale and vacant. Homeless person just moves in and pretends to own the place, Police won't toss them out because:

"... Kirkland police say it's true — someone just showed up and changed the locks a week ago. They now claim they own the place. Police don't believe that, but also don't tend to get involved in landownership disputes and so haven't done anything, yet, to remove them... "

Ok, so I have a question. Does it make any difference if the house is for sale or even vacant? Can I pack my tent and move down to Willy's house, and camp out in his back yard? Why not? Police won't toss me out, it's a “land ownership dispute”, and they don't “get involved” in those! Hey, how about I drive off with Moses03's car, since it's a pretty cool car. Do the cops get involved with "automobile ownership disputes"?

[Chacha]

That is really scary.

And they call it "squatter's right"!?
Don't you think that is twisted?

**faints

[Allen]

I'd call it trespassing and :tgun2: the camper.

[Toastmaker]

If the bank that actually has title to the house wanted to, they could send a bank officer to the house, recorded deed in hand, and the police will remove and/or arrest the occupants for burglary. The article seemingly does not tell the whole story.

:running:

[Bone]

Squatters are becoming a common problem, with all the empty houses on the market these days. There are laws against it, and if the local cops refuse to do anything to the squatters in question, then I'm not surprised.

Of course, they'll stop you when you're jogging in your neighborhood and demand to see ID, and when you say "I'm jogging Sir, and my wallet is back ay my house two blocks over", they'll threaten to arrest you for not carrying ID. And, when they follow you home to verify you are who you say you are, they stand on your property with their hand on their pistol. Forget that you're educated, skilled, live in a really nice neighborhood, and they can see you don't have any tatoos because you're just in jogging shorts, you are a criminal until proven otherwise.

But hey, if someone decides to take over my home when I'm out on a four day trip, it's nice to know they won't be bothered by the cops.

[sky pilot]

Squatters are becoming a common problem, with all the empty houses on the market these days. There are laws against it, and if the local cops refuse to do anything to the squatters in question, then I'm not surprised.

Of course, they'll stop you when you're jogging in your neighborhood and demand to see ID, and when you say "I'm jogging Sir, and my wallet is back ay my house two blocks over", they'll threaten to arrest you for not carrying ID. And, when they follow you home to verify you are who you say you are, they stand on your property with their hand on their pistol. Forget that you're educated, skilled, live in a really nice neighborhood, and they can see you don't have any tatoos because you're just in jogging shorts, you are a criminal until proven otherwise.

But hey, if someone decides to take over my home when I'm out on a four day trip, it's nice to know they won't be bothered by the cops.
I bet they would do something if I told them they BETTER GET THEM OUT BEFOR I GET THERE WITH MY 7MM REM MAG !

[Allen]

I bet they would do something if I told them they BETTER GET THEM OUT BEFOR I GET THERE WITH MY 7MM REM MAG !

http://i35.tinypic.com/opi8n.jpg

[OBIO]

About a mile down the road from us, there is a lovely brick home that is sitting empty....people were living in it one day, gone the next. Probably a hundred thousand dollar property (keep in mind that the property values around here are not nearly what they are elsewhere in the US...a hundred thousand dollar home here is equal to a 600 thousand dollar home elsewhere). I have though about giving our landlord's a 30 day notice of our intent to move out, then for Deb and I to move into that empty house as squatters. If we live there for 3 or 4 months before getting the boot, we will have saved 1500 to 2000 dollars in rent. And when we get booted out of that house, we could simply move our stuff to the nice little white house next door that is empty. And when we get booted out of that house, there is a nice little house just up the road from us that was built less than 4 years ago....sitting empty for the last 8 months or so....and it has a really really nice detached 4 car garage with a hydraulic lift...the kind you see in a mechanic's shop. Yep, we could save a fortune just by squatting in the empty houses on our road alone.

Seriously....I don't see how the police aren't lifting a finger to remove the squatters. And how the heck did the concept of "Squatter's Rights" come into being....trespassing is illegal and trespassers, in my mind at least, only have one right...the right to get shot....but then again, I'm not an overly "progressive" person....I still cling to a good number of the Wild West/Cowboy ways of thinking...which is odd in itself seeing as I am half Injun.

OBIO

[Willy]

P, if you wanted to come camp out in my back yard, I'd show you where the water hose is and tell you to keep an eye on the bay mare as she can be a bit "opinionated" when she's in season.

Now if it was someone I didn't know, I'd instigate that mare's attitude a bit.

[PRB]

Thanks Willy! I was just using you and Moses as "visual aids", you might say! :)

[Bone]

http://i35.tinypic.com/opi8n.jpg

LOL. Great story. It's a shame that "To serve and protect" has proven to be a meaningless motto.

[Allen]

LOL. Great story. It's a shame that "To serve and protect" has proven to be a meaningless motto.

Cool Story Bro "CSB" time.

This is what it is like now with the coppers.

http://www.opticstalk.com/uploads/7340/shriff.jpg

Sheriff's car
The Kern County, California, Sheriff's Department orders plain white patrol units and has the graphics applied locally. In this case, what they ordered was not quite what they got.

This car was driven for 1 week before an officer noticed what the graphics company employee did on the passenger side of the car. The employee did this on his last day working for the graphics company before he retired.

[Bone]

This is what it is like now.

http://www.opticstalk.com/uploads/7340/shriff.jpg

Sheriff's car
The Kern County, California, Sheriff's Department orders plain white patrol units and has the graphics applied locally. In this case, what they ordered was not quite what they got.

This car was driven for 1 week before an officer noticed what the graphics company employee did on the passenger side of the car. The employee did this on his last day working for the graphics company before he retired.

Too funny.

[Lionheart]

Thats hilarious about the squad car graphics... lol.. Brilliant!

Paul,

There are so many abandoned homes these days, often going months without someone in them. What if those people were never discovered and lived there a year before being noticed, and had kept the house up and looking good?

It is horrible that homeless people, at least this couple, did this, but more horrible is people, Americans, living on the streets! If only we could figure a way to create a system of home care-takers or something that would 'help' take care of homes, fix them up, for rent, and then when the time comes when an owner is found, for them to go to the next unit, etc.

Its rough times. I am not siding with evil people, but looking at the big picture. I dont think they were stealing the house, but they were trespassing. Things get really wierd then when you have people living somewhere. They have these rights of having so long to get out, giving them time to get a new place, which is the law. Difficult line to cross.

I feel bad for the home owners. What a perdicament...

[sky pilot]

http://i35.tinypic.com/opi8n.jpg

I did this same thing when I lived in East Wenatchee one night !
I had called tho police tow times ans they said the same sa this so the last time I called I told them I am watching them load up my race car stuff now and I have a 300foot long driveway and if you are not here bby the time they get to 250 feet of that you BETTER BRING BODY BAGS WITH YOU !
I had just hung up the phone and three cop cars pulled up and tow of them had dogs in them and they got them ALL !
sky pilot

[Gdavis101]

Two streets south of us has nothing but squatters on it, county won't do anything about it either because they have to be evicted first even though they have no right to be in the houses. They are all welfare and no one has jobs, but yet because the law is written the way it is they get to stay in these homes just because they have occupied them for so much time.

I wanted to start a neighborhood watch in my area, but most of the good neighbors do not want to get involved and its something I am not willing to do all by myself. Contacted the local Sheriff about starting one here and I was told that they offer no real help in getting people involved and that it would be entirely up to me, $$ and everything else. They would have a deputy come and talk to everyone if I could get them all together though.

When I was in law enforcement my department embraced programs like neighborhood watch.

[sky pilot]

Nice dog you got there !
Most anymore want someone else to protect ther things and cry becouse they lose things to thievs but IT THEY looked after them closer no one would even try to steal from them !

[hey_moe]

It goes to show ya how screwed up laws are...lol. We had the same problem this summer in Yorktown. This house had been on the market for a while. It's on the water.11,000 square foot. Some type of religious Indian group that said the land was deeded to them in the 1800's...lol. They also changed the locks and moved right in. It only lasted a few weeks. They were all arrested, charged with trespassing and other various charges. Linda's dad owns a couple of rental houses and he has run into problems when the renter stops paying, he ends up going to court and they can live there free for another 30 days before he can get them out. Only in America :salute:

[FengZ]

There was a show on This American Life about some guy who goes around filing paperwork on houses he doesn't own. And then he sells the house without the original owners knowing it (usually sells it while the owners are out on vacation). The original owners return to find out that strangers are living in their house...and took their furniture!

And of course the law won't get involved cuz it's a property thing. This one guy has messed up the credit/lives of so many people and there's nothing they can do it about it (apparently it takes 2-3 years for the city to "re-look" at filed paper work...so the original owners have to find a hotel or buy another home while they wait for the city to sort it out). Amazing huh?!?!

crazy laws we have in the states...

-feng