Posted on 07/14/2017 6:52:17 AM PDT by dennisw
Homeowner nightmare: Woman selling her house found a family who fell for Craigslist scam squatting inside the day before closing the deal - and it took WEEKS to kick them out
Dena Everman was closing on the sale of her Marietta, Georgia, home June 26 She showed up to the home on June 25, only to discover Tamera Pritchett, her fiance and two children had moved in two weeks before The family responded to a fake Craigslist ad for the home and received a pair of keys after they signed e-documents and wired about $3,000 to a scammer Everman called the police, but they were unable to help since it didn't count as breaking and entering After notifying the district attorney, Everman said the family packed up Friday They had been living in the house for a total of nearly five weeks
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
If you did shoot someone under those circumstances it would not seem that Castle Doctrine would apply since you weren’t residing in the home, and subject to a murder/ADW charge.
Of course this is FR where we shoot first and think about consequences later..
I can sympathize. I PCS'd in the Navy from San Diego to Jacksonville and had to take care of all my housing arrangements on-line. Because I had a growing family, I didn't want to move into an apartment. I needed a house. Most importantly, I needed it to be ready for me to move in as soon as I arrived in Jacksonville. I didn't have the time or resources to drive around looking for places to live.
I had to take my chances, do what research I could, hope, pray and cross my fingers that everything was legit when I mailed off a check for nearly $2,000.
Fortunately, the people who rented to me were honest property managers and not scammers. I could have just as easily moved into a house, had my utilities turned on and made a home for my family only to hear a knock on the door and meet the actual homeowner asking me who I was and why am I living in her house.
In this instance I would give the family the benefit of the doubt that they acted in good faith, and without criminal intent.
Not sure there was an actual crime committed by the family.
The crime was the fraud perpetrated against the family and the property owner.
How did this family (or the “landlord”) have a key to the house??
Is this an inside job involving the seller’s realtor??
Renting the home would make much more sense, but I could find no where in the article which states this, so my assumption loomes. And it's very interesting the same story shows up a week later, but with omissions from the original, unless they are correcting the story.
Something is missing from this story.
“I just walked into my home saw somebody in it, assumed it was an intruder and opened fire”
If it is not house you are actively living in then this is a huge legal (and moral) problem. Happened here recently and the dude was put on murder charges.
All true but Tamara was unlucky or dumb and got duped. Now she is out three thousand dollars.
http://freebeacon.com/culture/woman-finds-strangers-living-home-now-cant-get/
Color me veeery curious to know why the story now includes keys. I am also curious to know whether or not these squatters have any income at all...I bet not.
See video of a broken window in post #28.
However, when this story was posted last week, there was no talk of keys. Rather, a window was broken out. The video in post 28 shows this.
In a news story like this one, journalists and investigative reporters are supposed to sort things out, verify accounts and give it to us "straight".
That's laughable nowadays. I don't believe a single word any of the news outlets put out. They are all follow agendas of their corporate owners or bosses which warps their supposedly objective jobs as journalists into pretzels.
And seriously, I don't know why I expend so much time and energy trying to sort this stuff out. Especially about things like this story.
As the saying goes, I need to "get a life!"
Such as, how did they get keys? I would bet its a rental scam though. Much easier to fall for than owner scam.
She was either dumb, or she knew it was a scam and didn’t care. No one does ANYTHING in real estate using “e-signed” documents through Craigslist and is then given keys through the mail.
I should go squat in the local abortion clinic.
DID ANYONE NOTICE THE HAT ON MISS INNOCENT’S HEAD? Still has the anti-theft tag on it.
People need to read the entire story that Daily Mail did not bother to post.
The owner, Dena Everman, is a white woman with a black husband so I don’t think she can be called racist as a few commenters at the source claimed. She also has a Facebook page that documents the entire story.
On the other hand, the squatter, Tamera Pritchett, and her fiance broke into the house through a back window and changed the locks. They claimed the co-owner told them that they could since they wanted to move in right away. They even went so far as to claim that Dena Everman had to have known about the lease and was just taking advantage of them. The squatter has a warrant out for her and the fiance had stolen plates on his car. They did their best to destroy the house in less than five weeks. Nice group of people there.
The police didn’t want to be bothered with the problem. The district attorney said they had no right to be in the house so they were evicted. I have my doubts about the squatters paying anyone $3000.
Wow! Thanks for the extra details....... Yes one can doubt her story of paying $3000. Perhaps she can point out the Craigs list advertisement? If it is gone then Craiglist can be subpoenaed
to produce it.
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