The end to a Louisiana homeowner’s nightmare may only have been the beginning after a serial squatter who tried to sell his property out from under him returned.
In April, Joseph Guerin and Jennifer Chapman had been evicted from a Baton Rouge, Louisiana home left to Richard Craven and his wife Kristen after his in-laws had passed away. At the time, the squatter had been hauled off to jail, but a day after his Sept. 4 release, “That Joey guy is back.”
Speaking with WBRZ 2, Craven explained that the home which had previously been trashed by squatters was occupied once more after Guerin had been released on a $5,000 bond. Despite having changed the locks, the distraught homeowner said, “He got in there. He saw it was empty, and he decided he’s going to sell it for cash money. And he’s just about accomplished that.”
The homeowner said he had been made aware that the squatter had returned by a neighbor, “She texted me this morning and said you have company over there. That Joey guy is back.”
According to Craven, the police have been unable to help him and informed him that it is a civil matter because Guerin somehow obtained documents supporting his own claim to the property. “The police won’t show me what paperwork he has. I’ve told them whatever he has, has got to be forged.”
Back in April, the homeowner told WBRZ 2 that he had gone to inspect the property inherited in 2022 and found it wrecked, “We were checking on it and it was ransacked. Everything was tossed.”
Whoever had been coming and going at all hours had painted furniture and walls with matte blacks and whites and one room had been covered with graffiti. Furthermore, a bathroom was said to have been destroyed and drug paraphernalia and empty bottles of alcohol had been found left within.
“Drug using, drug dealing, I don’t know if he was renting rooms out to females,” speculated Craven at the time.
While the rightful owners had intended to fix up the home and sell it themselves, Guerin had placed it on the market for $225,000 in his own attempt to profit from the otherwise vacated home. Craven managed to get the listing pulled and not long after the squatter who had documents claiming to be paying property taxes was arrested for unauthorized entry.
Squatters have been a problem nationwide as the courts often have to get involved, especially in cases like the Cravens where there is disparate documentation. Around the same time as Guerin’s arrest, at which point he was already out on a $5,000 bond for a similar offense, property owners in Florida were dealing with thousands of dollars worth of damage done to a rental property as a couple had been housed there with more than a dozen pit bulls and a fraudulent lease.
Lesbian squatters with ’15’ pit bulls reportedly lay waste to FL rental property, throw feces at owners https://t.co/RQeBKmRNZ6 pic.twitter.com/MnePZNWx4Z
— BizPac Review (@BIZPACReview) April 17, 2023
WBRZ reported that Baton Rouge Police had yet to respond to their questions as to what could be done for the homeowners now as Craven himself affirmed, “I’m not gonna allow a criminal to bust in the house and take control. It’s just as simple as that. So, it’s more than gettin’ control. He’s goin’, he’s gonna go.”
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