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May 18, 2009 7:20 pm US/Eastern
Squatters Take Over Foreclosed Homes
HOLLYWOOD (CBS4) ―
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On the outside it looks like a high end home, but on the inside neighbors say squatters took over when the property went into foreclosure.
CBS
"For Sale" signs hang in the yard of the big, new home on Fillmore Street in Hollywood, just steps from North Lake and the intracoastal. The home is in foreclosure and has a buyer. But it also had a squatter.
"It just looked like people were moving in," said neighbor Donna Rion. Rion watched four people move boxes into the home. Police say one of them was Darren Rucker, who now goes by the name Zamir Muhammadan El. According to neighbors, the accused squatters not only moved in, but changed the locks, too.
What sent off warning bells for Rion was when she saw them pull a chain across the driveway. "It was just a chain," she said "and then it had a no trespassing sign with a picture of a temple on it. "When I went and read it," she continued, "it said all this stuff about the temple and aboriginal rights and I didn't understand what it was."
Investigators explained the group claims to be part of "The Marrakush Science Temple Church." The group apparently claimed that because of ancient treaties, they had rights to the property. When the man buying the home saw them there, they ordered him off the property, saying he was trespassing. Police were called, but by the time officers arrived, the four squatters had cleared out.
"With all these foreclosures, there seems to be a lot of crazy stuff going on," said real estate attorney Giovanni Nicosia.
Nicosia told
CBS4 News that getting squatters out of vacant homes is not always easy. It can be expensive and time consuming. He knows first hand. "In one of my rentals, I found someone was living there. It turns out it was like a homeless person, who just moved in." After two months and several court hearings, he was finally able to evict the squatter.
In the Hollywood case, they were lucky; the group left just as quickly as it came.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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