Imagine leaving your home to care for a loved one and coming back to find your key won’t turn the lock. Apparently, this happened to a Georgia resident who is now forced to take legal action to get the intruders kicked out.
Paul Callins tells WSB-TV 2 Atlanta that he inherited a home on Ashton Oak Circle in Dekalb County from his father who passed away three years ago of cancer. He took it upon himself to put the house on the market but that resulted in spending thousands of dollars in renovations he did himself. He told the outlet he planned to put the house up for rent to a government-subsidized tenant and published an advertisement online.
However, it appears it wasn’t just potential tenants who picked up on the new lease ad. Callins claims a couple tried to hijack the listing the illegal way. He told the outlet they broke into his home Friday, forged a fake lease agreement to show the police and have been squatting in the home while he was away taking care of his wife.
That’s not even the worst part.
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“Basically, these people came in Friday, broke into my house and had a U-Haul move all their stuff in. It’s frustrating. It’s very frustrating. I can’t even sleep,” Callins told WSB.
“I guess they have done this before, because when I called the police, they said since they have a fake lease, that they can’t do anything. That it’s a civil matter,” Callins explained.
It appears to be a long and tedious process to have the imposters thrown out. In Georgia, police cannot remove squatters.
Callins must first file an ‘Affidavit of Intruder’ notice in court and have it signed by a judge.
He can then appeal to the county sheriff’s office to have the squatters evicted.
“I have to go through the court system, and I understand it could take 60 to 90 days,” he said.
When I say these folks are unbothered? A news crew with cameras and everything confronted the new fake tenants outside the home. They ignored every question and continued to mind their business.
One of the tenants responded, “Jesus is coming soon,” before closing the door in the reporter’s face.
This incident comes as the Georgia General Assembly works to pass a new law mending this state-wide squatting issue, allowing police to arrest squatters for trespassing and making the use of fake leases a felony offense, per WSB-TV.