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A Georgia homeowner was arrested and charged with trespassing after she tried to return to her home where they allegedly lived squatteraccording to WSB-TV.
“Seeing that woman walk into my mom’s house while I was in a police car, something is wrong with this picture. Something is wrong with this picture,” homeowner, Loletha Hale, he told WSB-TV.
The incident happened on December 9, after Hale allegedly returned to her house to clean up after a judge ruled in her favor in her months-long battle with Sakemeyio Johnson, the alleged squatter.
Police said, according to WSB-TV, that Hale “performed an unlawful eviction and forcibly removed Ms. Johnson’s belongings.”
A squatter tries to get into an abandoned house in downtown Edmonton. Friday, May 20, 2022, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. ((Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images))
“I spent the night on a mat on a concrete floor in desperate conditions. While this woman, this squatter was sleeping in my home,” Hale told the news outlet.
Police confirmed with the judge that Hale did not have a “signed title deed,” which would have allowed Hale to legally evict Johnson.
“She just caught up with her out of nowhere. She had this guy with her and I locked the door. I locked the screen door and he made himself tell us to get out,” Johnson told police about the incident.
Hale told the paper that she thought Johnson had moved out of the house after she won her court victory in November.
South Fulton, Georgia police have been detaining squatters allegedly in a home since Christmas 2023. (FOX 5 Atlanta)
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“I came back on Monday to start painting and she broke the locks on my property,” Hale said.
Johnson has not been charged with any crime, according to WSB-TV.
Georgia saw an increase in squatter cases brought to court in recent years.
A report by the Pacific Legal Foundation found an upward trend in squatter cases brought to court starting in 2019. The number of such cases in Georgia increased from three in 2017 to 50 in 2021.
In 2023, there were 198 civil court cases involving squatting in the Peach State, according to the report.
The Clayton County Police Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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