Owner Returns To Queens Home Vacated By Squatter, Finds It In Shambles
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Queens woman returned to her house ransacked and squalid Monday, as she continued to fight the squatter she has claimed stole her house.
AS CBS2's Steve Langford reported, Darrell Beatty was branded a squatter after being arrested on criminal charges in the case for allegedly laying false claim to a Laurelton home where CBS2 found him in mid-October.
Jennifer Merin, whose family has owned the home since the 1930s, fought for months to throw Beatty out. Earlier this month, a Queens Housing Court judge rejected his request to stay until the end of the year, giving him 10 days to get out.
CBS2's Langford was there on Monday when Merin got her home back. What she saw left her in tears.
"This is going to be a shock, because it's not going to be as I remember it," Merin said tearfully before she entered.
Merin was joined by a New York City marshal to liberate the house. But while Beatty answered the door last month and claimed he had not been squatting at all, there was no sign of Beatty, his son or the pitbull who had been living in the home when Merin and the marshal returned Monday.
But the house was a disaster area, and Merin said her home had been trashed. Boxes and garbage bags were seen scattered haphazardly around the floors.
"Maybe I'm in shock," she said.
Merin was nearly in tears as she saw a bathroom with a messy toilet.
"The bathroom in there is like a pigsty," Merin said.
And Merin's valuables were gone too. She said a "beautiful" four-tier crystal and brass chandelier that had hung from the ceiling was nowhere to be found.
So where was Beatty? There were reports he moved out of the house this past weekend, but no word about where he has moved now.
"I think he's thinking, 'Ho, ho, ho, I got away with that didn't I,'" Merin said.
Beatty does have a series of criminal court dates beginning Nov. 25. He is also charged in another case in Queens for alleged false impersonation after being pulled over by a police officer.
"I'm not a violent person, but there are parts of me that just wish really evil things to him – really evil," Merin said.
The locks on the house have now been changed, but the renovations will be staggering.
Merin also said vast amounts of her property are missing, along with the car she parked in the garage. She said she would file a police report.
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