In the immortal words of Michael Scott, “Good, good, good. Like the turntables.”
When squatters took over his mother’s home, Flash Shelton did what any good son would do: He immediately backed down.
“If they could take a house, I could take a house,” Shelton said.
YouTube: United Handyman Association
Shelton, a handyman from Nevada, said after his father’s death that his mother couldn’t live alone in the house. So they put the house up for rent.
A woman claiming to be a prison guard asked to rent the house, but she had neither money nor credit. Though Shelton denied her request, she still had all of her furniture and belongings delivered to her home.
“She said it was accidentally delivered and she wanted to get rid of it,” Shelton said.
But he soon found out that was a lie.
YouTube: United Handyman Association
Neighbors reported that the house was full of people and the lights stayed on at night. Shelton tried calling the police about the squatters, but they were basically no help.
“They basically said, ‘You know, I’m sorry, but we can’t go into the house and it looks like they live there. So you have to go to court,'” Shelton said.
But who wants to deal with the time and expense of litigation?
“Even though you’re in your house paying the mortgage, at some point squatters feel like they have more rights than you do, so they have no incentive to leave until a judge tells them to,” he said. “And that could take months, six months, it could take years. I don’t know. I didn’t want to take that risk.”
Shelton hatched a plan to remove the squatters.
And he documented the whole thing on his YouTube channel.
Shelton wrote a lease between him and his mother, which listed Shelton as the legal occupant of the house. He then packed the essentials (his guns and dog) and set off for California.
Once everyone was out of the house, he used his key to let himself in. He began setting up surveillance cameras when two women arrived.
“I’m really sorry about all this,” said one of the women. “It’s a nightmare and beyond.”
Shelton told the women that if they didn’t have everything out by midnight, he would have it shipped. It took the squatters until 3 p.m. to get out, but Shelton was kind enough to let it slide.
Eye to eye. Tooth for tooth. A squat for a squat.
“I think just the fact that I was there was enough,” he said. “It was really fun doing that. I won’t lie about it. I am happy that it was successful.”
