A Nevada handyman turned the tables on squatters who invaded his mother’s California home, after local officials said they could offer no assistance in getting them out.
Flash Shelton, executive director of the Las Vegas-based United Handyman Association, said in a YouTube video that the trouble began after his father died and his mother could no longer live in the family home — which was then put up for rent.
A woman who identified herself as a prison guard reached out to Shelton looking to rent the Northern California house, but couldn’t offer any money or credit.
Shelton turned the woman down, but she was apparently undeterred.
“She ended up having a truck of furniture, and literally moved into the house,” Shelton said.
“I started hearing from Realtors …. saying that there is this lady and people in the house and a house full of furniture.”
“I then started getting reports from neighbors,” who had noticed lights on at night and cars in the driveway, he continued.
Local police and the sheriff’s department said there was nothing they could do to help.
“They said, ‘I’m sorry, we can’t enter the house and it looks like they’re living there. You need to go through the courts'” — a potentially lengthy process.
Shelton then had an idea on how to beat the cons at their own game.
“All I needed to do at that point was do the same thing they did, and occupy the house,” he said.
“If they can take a house, I can take a house.”
He wrote up a “lease agreement” with his mother, making him the legal tenant of the property.
Then he loaded up his car, packed a gun “just in case” and set off on a 12-hour drive.
He arrived around 4 a.m., waited for the squatters to leave the home for the day, and entered while they were out.
When the squatter and her granddaughter returned, he confronted them, telling them they had to be out with all their stuff ASAP.
The conversation was polite and the anonymous vagabond apologized for the inconvenience.
“I’m really sorry about all this,” she can be heard saying in his recording.
“It’s a nightmare and beyond.”
The squatters bolted a day later.
“I think just the fact that I was there was enough,” he mused.
“It was actually fun to do it. I won’t lie about that. I’m glad it was successful.”
In a follow-up video, the handyman cautioned others against taking his approach.
“Not everyone should walk through that door not knowing what you’re gonna find,” he said.
“It’s not always going to be peaceful like that.”
