Fox & Friends’ Lawrence Jones reports on 'dangerous' squatter crisis in Atlanta

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Residents of Atlanta are facing a squatter crisis as homes are being turned into illegal sites for drugs and prostitution, in addition to being torn apart.

Co-host Lawrence Jones traveled to the Peach State to report on the incident, talking to people on both sides of the issue, for the February 8 episode of 'Fox & Friends.'

Real estate agent shares her ordeal

Kesha Chedeaux, a real estate agent, was a victim of the squatters herself.

"The last incident that I had, there was a squatter there who totally destroyed the place," she told Jones. "One has went to jail. They sold the appliances from the property and received money for them. Selling appliances, (there's) feces everywhere, (they're) sleeping in the beds because these properties are staged on the market."

Removing the squatters from the property is not an easy task, said Chedeaux.

"First and foremost, it's dangerous. People that are doing that ultimately have no fear because they're taking possession of your property without your consent…," she said.

"They've actually broken into the property, putting these ads on Craigslist, and then they're taking people's money for deposit and rent, and then they don't get access to the property. So that's another thing of them getting scammed."

Getting scammed into squatting

As a part of his investigation, Jones met with an alleged squatter, who claimed to be a victim of a shady Craiglist scam herself.

"My son – he's in jail. He was paying these people every month. The police have already been out here. They’re going to send me a court date for me to come to court," she stated.

Mentioning that her family had been making payments for the place to their Craigslist contact for the last 9 months, she said, "I paid last month, but they (the police) told me don't pay this month."

"They showed us the house, gave us the keys and everything…" she continued. "I'm getting out of here soon."

Turning properties into illegal hubs

Recalling the horror, another property owner who became a victim of squatters shared, "They (the squatters) acted like I was doing something wrong. There was prostitution. There was drug selling, drug usage, everything. This went on for months. They broke in through the walls, through the doors, through the windows."

The squatters took out copper from the home's HVAC system and pulled the furnace out of the attic, damaging the framing. Reframing the hallway cost the owner $13,000, and the total damages went up to approximately $30,000.

While she was forced to install a lock system on the house's doors and windows to prevent people from invading again, the decision would leave room for potential buyers in the future to question her and be deterred from making the purchase.