CLINTON, Md. — As of Thursday evening, the locks are changed and a house on Dragoo Place in Clinton, Maryland is empty after people moved into a home they didn't own last week. Police told WUSA9 they are now treating the temporary occupants of the home as suspected "trespassers."
The battle began when a Prince George's County couple drove by the house they were in the process of purchasing and noticed a U-Haul in the driveway and people moving into the home.
The people moving in alleged they had signed a lease to rent out the house. According to Melea King, the purchasing couple's realtor, the people moving in refused to leave and showed the couple a copy of their lease for the property.
That is when the couple called the cops.
"Once the police was on site, they took a look at the lease and it was not accurate. It was not correct," said King.
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Days later the State's Attorney for Prince George's County Aisha Braveboy told WUSA9 that everyone in this situation has some rights and their office is investigating.
On Thursday, Braveboy said the individuals had no right and no authority to be in the home.
"They were advised of such and they chose to leave which was a good decision," she said.
Prince George's County Police surrounded the Dragoo Place home Thursday morning. By midday, a locksmith and cleaning crew, hired by the bank that owns the foreclosed home, were on the property.
A clean-out contractor who said he worked for the bank that had originally foreclosed on the home changed locks and moved a number of items including a pair of reclining chairs out of the house Thursday.
"Thank goodness we got our neighborhood back!" said resident Paulette Johnson.
Johnson said her sense of security had been shaken.
“They stood out like a sore thumb. So we knew that they didn't belong here," Johnson said as she remarked the people who'd taken over the home appeared to be young adults.
The people living in the home refused multiple offers for an interview but told WUSA9 before moving out that they are victims in this case too.
Braveboy tells WUSA9 that no charges have been filed yet and investigators are looking into what may be a fraudulent lease.
“We are very interested in understanding who created the lease agreement. So before we could answer the question about broad we have to have a better understanding of how this lease came into existence. And so that is a matter that we will investigate along with the Prince George's County Police Department," Braveboy said.
One Maryland attorney told WUSA9 that recently scammers are taking advantage of laws designed to protect his clients from evictions by moving into foreclosed homes knowing it will take the buyers months to kick them out because of a backlog in the courts caused by COVID - and demanding money to move out.
"They're holding houses hostage," Nawash said. "What normally use to take one month, now we're talking about several months and $10- to $20,000 in legal fees."
Nawash said anyone with an unconventional home purchase - like a foreclosure - needs to take unconventional steps to protect it.
The house is now back in control of the bank that had foreclosed on it to start with, but it appears investigators have a long way to go to get to the bottom of who tried to take over a house they didn't own.
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A Prince George's County couple had just signed a contract with a bank to buy a home when the wife says she drove by the property and saw a U-Haul in the driveway with people moving in.