A property owner says she feels helpless due to a group of squatters who keep returning to her Washington state property, the NY Post reported. After being initially removed by a SWAT team during the pandemic, she said they have returned and this time with a mob of stolen vehicles.
On Wednesday, police raided the Lynnwood, Wash., home and arrested five out of a dozen squatters who were living on the property illegally. Police told KIRO 7 News, they discovered drugs and guns on the property, along with 52 cars, some of which were stolen. Cops described their living conditions as
“unhealthy and unstable.”
Laleh Kashani, who is the owner of the property said that the
“criminals took over”
her property after the state and federal government put a suspension on evictions as COVID-19 first spread across the country.
“They took over the house and we couldn’t collect a dollar of rent, and have a mortgage,”
she told the outlet. Kashani said she changed the locks even after the raid and the suspects still returned.
“We changed the locks and they even broke that. So they should at least be arrested for breaking in, and they didn’t do that,”
Kashani said.
However, Lieutenant David Hayes of the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office told Fox News Digital that it was
“largely on the property owner”
to curb squatters from entering the property.
“The sheriff’s office will respond to the property owners complaints that people returned and if we have the ability to legally move people off the property we will,”
Hayes said.
“What it may take for the property owner is to go and get a court order to move people out of there and oftentimes that’s necessary.”
Kashani says she’s frustrated by the entire situation and is looking to move out of the state.
“I literally cry,”
she said.
“I’m going to give up, I’m going to lose my house. Whatever we owe on it, let the bank take it.”
#Clique, what are your thoughts?
