A Michigan housing community is tearfully celebrating the end of a noisy squatter situation that has invaded neighborhoods and daily life for more than three years.
Dowagiac residents feared for their safety and that of their children after a neighbor allowed a man, his dilapidated camper, and all of the man’s friends to occupy her backyard as a residence.
“When he moved in, he started bringing in trash and old washers and dryers,” Dowagiac resident DeMarco Smith told Fox News Digital in a phone interview. “We’d hang out in the backyard. We had a movie theater and a bar, and there were strangers there all the time.”
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A Michigan homeowner is celebrating with family and neighbors after squatters were finally evicted from the house next door. (DeMarco Smith)
Two years after moving in, the homeowner passed away. The family tried to repossess the house and give it to the bank, but all parties involved ran into a Michigan squatter inspection and the squatters took over the house completely.
“We had no running water or electricity for about three years,” Smith said. “We got rid of most of the electrical equipment. We took out the copper piping and sold the furnace.”
Smith built a six-foot fence around his yard to separate his wife and daughter from the constant commotion next door, but he said some men tried to tear it down when they put it on his property, and parts of it are still in pieces today.
“We have 14 cameras on our property,” Smith said. “We already know that drugs were being used there. There were days when you couldn’t go outside because of the chemical smell coming from the wood stove. The fire department was called out eight times and we had a shed on fire in the backyard.”
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DeMarco Smith, of Dowagiac, Michigan, said for years his neighbors have endured illegal activity at squatter homes on his neighborhood. (DeMarco Smith)
Mr Smith added: “My wife and daughter did not feel safe here. They were scared while I was away.”
Smith described the area as a “great neighborhood” and said there had been no issues between residents or with strangers on the street before the squatters moved in. Smith said cameras had captured chemical fumes coming from the home at times.
“My daughter would play in the backyard,” he said. “I had to go outside and sniff the air before she could play outside. Even if we were watching a movie outside, I had to come back inside because I could smell it. I felt cornered.”
Smith spent $4,500 to protect his family from his neighbors’ illegal activities, equipping them with surveillance equipment that runs on a seven-day battery backup, a 120-decibel siren for warnings, an Apple Watch to keep an eye on the house while Smith and his wife are at work, a fence and a gun.
“They see someone with a backpack come in and come out on camera counting money,” he said. “It’s been that way all this time. Last winter, I think it was November, they had a standoff with the police for six hours. The police came looking for somebody and they wouldn’t come out. They were like, ‘Come on out with your hands up,’ and nobody came out.”
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After six sleepless hours, police kicked down the door but failed to find the culprit.
“I caught him on camera leaving 30 minutes later,” Smith said. “Sometimes the police have problems on the street and they come straight to my house.”
Despite friends urging him to move his family out of the house, Smith said he and his wife have spent 16 years building their dream home and won’t be forced to leave because of the situation.
“It’s really sad that you feel that way in your own home,” he said. “We’ve gone on vacations and had to cancel because I had a bad feeling about it. I was home countless times over the summer. I wasn’t able to enjoy myself because I had to worry about the house. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.”
Smith, the Michigan DJ, recounted watching at least four hours of footage a day, including footage he missed while he and his wife were sleeping, and that he would simultaneously play music for partygoers and watch the cameras while at work.
When private property is taken over by squatters, the whole of society pays the price.
Smith told Fox News Digital that the squatters had removed a fireplace from the home and the bank had covered a hole in the roof with a tarp. (DeMarco Smith)
Still, Smith said police did all they could, including making numerous arrests and pulling out people hiding under sheds, and he holds the city responsible for the repeated suffering caused by the squatters and their friends.
“You can get fined for your lawn and yet people do this and nothing happens,” he said.
Smith said that after years of torture, the bank was finally able to evict the squatters and their friends.
“When he left there we were crying on the front porch because we were so happy he was gone,” Smith said.
Unfortunately, he packed up his belongings and moved his duct-taped, flat-tired camper to another street in the area, which happened to be the same street where Smith’s mother-in-law lived.
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DeMarco Smith and his wife feared for their family’s safety after seeing so many people coming in and out of the squatters’ home for years, counting cash and filling backpacks. (DeMarco Smith)
“Right now they’re angry over there,” he said.
The home, about 25 miles from the shore of Lake Michigan, is for sale despite a large hole in the tarp-covered roof and missing wiring throughout the home, Smith said. The home doesn’t appear to be for sale on either Zillow or Realtor.com, but both sites estimate it to be worth more than $100,000.
“I’d like to buy it for $15,000,” Smith said. “I just want to demolish it and get the land.”
Though the Smiths and other residents have been in good spirits since the eviction, there remains fear that a similar situation could happen again. What’s more, some residents are still coming to the house, unaware that the main squatters have left.
“We started a group chat with our neighbors,” Smith said. “We’re telling each other, ‘Hey, there’s this guy walking around, he looks suspicious, be careful.'”
