Confronting The Squatter Living In My Home (Actual Footage)

Jack Selby
You're getting arrested right now for being arrested for what? For being in my own home. Thousands of people have lost their homes. We're talking squatters who try to use the law to take control of a property. It's really tough to get these folks out.

Graham Stephan
The person's in the house, and you can do nothing about it. But Flash Shelton, he can get rid of the unwanted guests. I am the squadron hunter. Kind of reminds me of a Batman vigilante who's taking matters into their own hands because the police can't do anything. I'm armed, and I'm trained both mentally and physically.

Flash Shelton
I can get people to do whatever I want them to do just simply by the tone of my voice. I figured out that I could use exactly the same loophole, the same system to get the squatter out. The only difference is I'm using it for good. The law allows me to do it. Why wouldn't I do it?

If they could take a house, I can take a house.

Graham Stephan
Flash, it is an honor to have you on the podcast. For the last few months, I know you've been in dozens of countries. Your videos have been viewed hundreds of millions of times across just about every platform possible, and you're known as the squatter hunter. Yes. Thank you.

Flash Shelton
Thanks for having me. How did you get that name, the squatter hunter? You know, I was asked at one point by media, actually. They asked me, like, what do you want to go by? What?

You know, like, are you Spider man? You know, basically something like that. And I just right away went to like, you know what I said? That squatter hunter just came out so easy. So that day, I just said, I am the squatter hunter.

I am the squatter hunter. Kind of reminds me of, like, a Batman vigilante who's going and, like, taking matters into their own hands. Cause the police can't do anything. Yeah, basically, because that vigilante, even if they're not a vigilante, that is, you know, like, Batman isn't killing people, right? He's not.

He's not. It's not vigilante justice. He's basically bringing them to the law, within the law. So what I'm doing is basically using the same law, the same system, and I'm just bringing them to my kind of justice. How do you get started doing that?

I was a victim. My mom was a victim. I was a good son taking care of my mom. That's how I got started. So what happened?

You know, my father had passed away. We moved my mom out of this remote location in northern California. Thought, you know, medical. There's no family up there. Moved her in with me to sell the home.

We list the home. I get a report that there's lights on the house and people, you know, that there was a back door broken in. I did what everyone would do. I call the sheriff. I tell them, look, my mom's vacant home that we're selling has been broken into.

The sheriff goes out. They say, yeah, the back door is broken in, but it's not vacant. There's a house full of furniture. And then I heard the words that everyone fears, there's nothing we can do. It's a civil matter.

Graham Stephan
How is that a civil matter? If someone trespasses in a vacant property, why can the police not do anything about it? What I have learned is that if I didn't specifically say it was a vacant home, if I just said someone broke in the home, they would have arrested them. If I would have had cameras, if I would have had an alarm system so that I could document when and who broke in, they would be arrested for trespassing. The fact that I couldn't say that they specifically broke in, I couldn't say when they entered.

Flash Shelton
Then it becomes a civil matter. Why couldn't you just say, hey, these people broke in at some point in the last few days. I wasn't there, but they have no right to be in there. They're trespassers. Could you have said something like that?

I tried every argument. I'm on the phone with a deputy. I'm about 1012 hours away, and I've got a deputy telling me, I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do. That's absurd. It seems like such a broken system at that point.

That's what I felt. I felt like all the pain I have, the pain of the passing of my father. I'm trying to take care of my mother. And then I had to realize that it was something that I had to take care of without letting my mom know about it. You didn't tell your mom?

I didn't tell my mom. I couldn't tell her. She was already in an emotional state dealing with losing her husband that she's been with since high school. So I couldn't tell her. I had to tell her that.

That I was gonna be going and doing repairs on the house and that I wanted a lease from her. You know, I broke the laws down. I figured out loopholes. I figured out when squatters obtain rights. And I figured that if they could take a house, I could take a house and I would out squat them.

I got a lease because I had read many things online about squatters having fake leases. So I got a lease from my mom, said I was gonna go up there and do repairs. I just didn't want anyone questioning me and what I was and who, you know, what I was doing there. Waited for them to leave, got there early morning and I witnessed five men and two women in three cars pull out of the driveway around 08:00 830 in the morning. And I went, secured the back door, put up cameras and waited for them to return.

Jack Selby
So was kicking out the squatters at your mom's place easy, or was that complicated? How'd that go? My preparation was dead on. I had everything prepared. I was expecting the worst and, you know, I, everything just kind of worked out.

Flash Shelton
But the main thing that made mine successful and easy is the fact that they all left. In a lot of cases, I would have one person left in there, and at that point I'd have to make a decision to actually go in on them, move in with them, because I can't physically grab them and throw them out, but I can make them want to leave on their own. So in the case of your mom's house, how did you make sure they weren't armed or they were dangerous or that you might be walking into a situation where you could get hurt? You know, I am armed in dangerous. That's you.

Graham Stephan
You're the dangerous one. Okay. I'm armed and I'm trained both mentally and physically. I'm, you know, I'm trained in de escalation. I'm certified in de escalation.

Flash Shelton
So you can see my mannerisms, my voice, how I can get people to do whatever I want them to do just simply by the tone of my voice. In those situations, I am prepared that they are armed, but I know that I'm going to lower the risk by catching them outside of the house. I'm rarely ever confronting them when they have their weapons inside. They have the house behind them. I'm usually putting myself in a position where I am between them and the house.

Graham Stephan
How do you catch them outside? They're not homeless, they're not needy. They're people that are going to work. You know, I find that most squatters get up in the morning, go to work, they have a job, they work at home, they still have to go out and get groceries or, you know, I will spend, uh, days literally just doing surveillance to document their movements that way. I know, like every Tuesday they leave at you know, 02:00 and they're gone for 3 hours.

Flash Shelton
Or if there's some sort of system, I'm figuring that out. I don't take a call and go right out and rush out to do something. I make sure that I know absolutely everything about the person I'm going to go after, where they are, who they are, how many kids they have, who their parents are, whatever. If they have social media, if there's something that I can expose, if they have something to lose, they're the easy ones. Because just influence alone, most of these squatters I can just say, look, you know, google me, go to my YouTube, look at my following, look at the news.

I can have news out here by tomorrow. A lot of times I'm just using my influence. So if people really want to help me get squatters out, they don't need to contribute, they just need to subscribe. Because it's the numbers is what helps me. Most people don't want to be public.

Jack Selby
What surprises me is the fact that these are very, just your average daily people that are squatting in these houses. You'd think that it would be like homeless people out on the street and they're just like, oh, look, it's an open front door. But maybe they just aren't as aware of the legal system and how this works. So they don't capitalize on that. Whereas the average person that goes to their average job, yada, yada, they can be aware of these like weird loopholes and everything and capitalize and save a couple thousand bucks on rent.

Flash Shelton
I don't think it's a lack of knowledge. I think it's a lack of heart. I think that what I have seen is that squatters are self entitled, they're narcissistic, it's a criminal type. It's somebody that can literally look at you knowing that they are putting you out on the street, knowing that you're losing your home low, knowing that you're going bankrupt and still be able to say, I'm a victim. That's a mentality.

That isn't the average person, a homeless person doesn't mean that they don't have a heart. It doesn't mean that they don't care about other people. They are in their situation because something that has nothing to do with you and I, and they don't hold it against us. Squatters hold society against them. Basically.

They figure that there's a law, there's a loophole, there's a system, it's allowing it to happen. So why not me, a homeless person will be like, there's an empty sidewalk. You know, I've got a tent. I'm good. Because homeless people, they tend to stick to themselves.

They don't break into people's houses. So what happened in the event of your mom's house, how did you go about getting them out of the property? Because I believe this is what started it all. They didn't have established rights as far as civil process yet. So with absence of that, if I had a lease, if they came up with a fake lease, then I would be able to basically take my real lease up against their fake lease and I would move in with them.

Once I waited for them to leave, I locked the doors, put the cameras up. I talked to a couple guys across the street. I told them, hey, I've got squatters in this house across the street. There's a house full of furniture. There are a couple college age guys, big guys.

And I said, you know, do you need any furniture? And they're like, yeah. I said, at 05:00 p.m. If you don't see a bunch of furniture in this driveway, come over, help me get it out, and you can have absolutely anything you want. When the squatters returned, I told them, look, it's my house now.

Everything in this house is, as far as I'm concerned, abandoned after today. So you have a choice. You can leave with your furniture or without your furniture. But now there are cameras up, an alarm system, and if you break back in the house, I'm going to prosecute. I said, I've got some people that are ready to come and take your furniture and keep it if you don't have it out.

Graham Stephan
So you were there, they came up, you told them you have to remove your furniture because it's abandoned. And this is basically told them that they had till the end of the day to get the furniture out of the house or it's mine and I sell it, I will lock it up in the house, and they won't be able to get in without breaking in. And I figured out that squatters, typically they gain their rights when the process is started. They can't prove that they've been in there, just like you can't prove how long they've been in there. They can't.

Flash Shelton
In most cases, when you hire an attorney and they serve a notice on them, that notice is basically giving them those rights. That notice says that you are acknowledging that they're living in your house. So if the sheriff doesn't do a report and I don't reach out to them. And I'm not acknowledging that they live there, then if I can wait for them to leave and there's no evidence of them basically having any kind of rights, I assume those rights. If they could take a house, I can take a house.

Jack Selby
But the problem is evidence of them being there could be their furniture, it could be their shoes, it could be anything, right? Yeah, but then you bring in anything and that's your evidence. Correct? You're right. Now, society says that it's a civil matter and most people take the civil process to them and try to fight to get them out.

Flash Shelton
What I do is outside the box. I say I kick them out and force them to fight to get back in. But you know what? I want to take a quick break to mention this. That AI could possibly be the most important new computer technology ever.

Jack Selby
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Graham Stephan
And now let's get back to the episode. So how expensive is it if you do want to go through the actual legal process of kicking out a squatter? You know, I've come up with basically based on the hundreds that I've dealt with, it's like a $20 to $30,000 and it's 6810 months a year to get a squatter out 20 to 30. I have some people in New York right now that have spent over $100,000 and they still have a squatter. How is it so expensive?

My understanding was that it's five to eight grand and a lot of that loss is simply in lost rent. The problem here is that squatters have the better attorneys. And the reason they have the better attorneys is because they only have to focus on one thing. The only thing a squatters attorney has to do is focus on extension. So that is turning the fees, right.

Flash Shelton
That is forcing the homeowner to spend money. If they can extend that process until that homeowner is exhausted at that point, these attorneys are at that point going to a homeowner and asking for $20,000 to get their squatter out. I have met a lot of people that have said that they've struggled even being able to hire an attorney because they look at it as a lost cause. Now, for me, it's actually working out. Cause attorneys are actually starting to refer my services.

They are looking at homeowners saying, look, you know, I'm really, to be honest with you, I might not be able to get your squatters out, okay. Because that they know that these attorneys are, they're just playing the system. I have a family in Palmdale, California. They got a quote from an attorney. He quoted them $5,000 upfront and $7,000 a week to get them out.

Graham Stephan
So in that case, it seems like it would be better off financially instead of hiring a lawyer to go straight to the tenant. I hate to say this, but just say, hey, instead of paying this lawyer 30 grand, I'll pay you ten grand to leave. Is that a good idea? I mean, I know it's a dangerous thing. Cause then you could basically go into any vacant house and hold it.

Jack Selby
It's just gonna make everyone turn into squatters. Next. Seven best side hustles, guys. Yeah. And that's already happening.

Flash Shelton
Happening. Homeowners are going to them. But the problem is that squad, the squatter that was taking 50, 00, 10,000, that doesn't exist anymore. I have a squatter that wants 300,000. They're like, look, this is what your house is worth.

Graham Stephan
How much is the house worth? The house is like, you know, a million five or something, and they want 300,000 to go out. I have not met a squatter now that wants less than $20,000 to move out. Now, this is a stupid question. What if hypothetically, in an alternate universe, they were tenants and they had a legitimate lease agreement, but then you could go in also with a legitimate lease agreement, move in while they're away, and say, well, now it's mine?

What's to stop that in a situation like, like that? Well, I mean, if they have a legitimate lease agreement, and, you know, it's going to be sorted out by a judge. So if it turned out that I was there and it was my mom who owned the house and they had a legitimate lease, then there are laws to protect them from me in that situation, I would be the one that would, that would probably face charges, but. They wouldn't be able to enter the house. Like, what I'm saying is, even, even a tenant, if you were to move in on a legitimate tenant using the same strategies, the tenant would be on the street in the same capacity as a squatter would be.

Flash Shelton
And that happens. It happens all the time. I have, some of my clients are actually tenants. I have, you know, tenants that, because when they go to turn the house back, the landlord or management company or whatever refuses to accept their, their notice because they're responsible to return a home squatter free. So tenants are trying to walk away from the house, but they can't because they're obligated to get those squatters out.

At a tenant in Vegas that, uh, she left to take care of her sick friend, when she came back, there was a husband and wife living in the, in the house and she had squatters. The management company said, it's on you. So she had to, she had to get the squatters out. She actually went to jail because she was trying to get them out. And it was still considered self help because she was basically, you know, going in.

She called the police and, and they showed a lease and ended up arresting the, the tenant, actually, that was trying to get the squatters out. What did they arrest the tenant for? Because she was animated and they ended up arresting her for assault because she was so distraught and so upset that she was like waving her arms and, and the officers felt threatened. Why does this not happen to every single house? That's like 80% done in construction.

The only thing I can say that is going to stop people from, you know, moving into a house like that is if you notice, construction sites all have no trespassing signs and they all have registered no trespassing signs. So if you break into a house that's, you know, 80, 90% done, then right away it's no trespassing and they're arrested. So I'm, so I'm curious then the registered no trespassing signs, can you put that on an occupied residence and register it? In some states, they actually allow you to list a name of the individual that you don't want to trespass. So it could be listed on an occupied home if you say it's a former roommate and you don't want them back and you just got them out of the house.

You can file a form that says that this individual can't trespass, but you. Don'T know the person who's moving in. That seems weird that you would think it would be only this person can live here, anyone else is. But it doesn't make sense to list who you don't want because you don't know their name. You don't know.

So most no trespassing signs and when you register them, there isn't a name. So yes, you can put no trespass sign on your gate of your home, but it really doesn't make sense or doesn't really matter if you don't register it with local law enforcement. So, like in my incident, they, after, at the end of my video, I talked about going to the sheriff, you know, and he said, hey, you know, fill out this form and this way we can, we can arrest anyone that enters the property. And it was a no trespass sign. A form I recommend, cameras, alarm no trespass signs, but actually registered, not just going and buying a sign and put it up because, you know, like you can see in my last video, the guy broke in the house, just ripped the no trespass sign off the door and then broke in the house.

Jack Selby
Has squatting always been an issue? Why does it seem like the media is just in a complete state of frenzy about it right now if there's been no laws that have actually changed to allow this? You know, I'd like to think that I had something to do with, you know, that it just being very, very aware right now. But I mean, this has been going on disguised as other things for years and years. I mean, this, there is no actual squatter.

Flash Shelton
Right. Okay. And a lot of people will argue squatters don't have rights because squatters, you know, squatter laws and squatter rights basically from the 18 hundreds, it was, it was land. It was, if you look it up, if you google and you look up the actual definition of squatter rights, it was right to undesignated land by government. And it was rights to, you know, settlers that could settle on land, build on land, settle in there for the winter, and then, you know, travel to their, to their location.

Somebody else coming into that land could settle in that home and decide to live there. Squatter rights now are just blurred between renter rights by tenant rights. It's, you know, squatters are just assuming tenant rights. That's all it is. It's just giving them the exact same process that an actual rent paying tenant has.

You know, when I propose these law changes, it's all about clear, a clear distinction between squatters and tenants to where, you know, squatters would be criminal squatters that go in and take over a residential maintained home. We're not even talking about homes that are abandoned. We're talking about, you know, because there's a, there's a community out there that are saying, well, you can't get rid of this because what about the vacant buildings and the vacant houses? And we're not even talking about that. We're talking about residential maintained homes.

People go on vacation and come home from, to squatters, it's, you know, a squatter can drive through the neighborhood and see a house they want, start sending mail to that house, show up in that house, get to the mailbox, get their mail out of it before you get their mail. Walk into your house with a backpack and put clothes in a closet. Now they have mail and they have clothes in that house. They're squattered and they live there and they have rights. That, unfortunately, is the system we are dealing with.

It's not like, oh, there's a house that's been abandoned and vacant and, and they're going to fix it up and they're going to increase the values in the neighborhood. That's not what we're talking about here. This whole uproar is, you know, people taking over actual maintained homes. There is no upkeep or back taxes to pay. Okay, but you know, the reason why we're hearing it is because we're in the day of, you know, social media and everything we hear about, regardless of what it is, we're hearing about it a lot more now just because of the way the system is.

Graham Stephan
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Graham Stephan
And now let's get back to the episode. Now, I'm curious, though, in your example of having, like, a furnished house, you go on vacation, you come back and somebody's living there. How do you differentiate between that and an actual tenant? Because I'm sure in those cases, if you come back to your house after going on vacation for a week, you come back and they say, well, no, I signed a lease. How do you differentiate between the two?

Isn't that still just a civil matter at that point? Yeah. Are they paying rent? I think that's the big thing. Can you show that you have paid rent?

Flash Shelton
Have ever paid rent? The other thing? So, like, when I have to be very careful not to fall into a trap. I can't have a homeowner contact me and say, I have a squatter, but it turns out to be a tenant. I have a different system that I do to help with non paying tenants, but I have to make sure that I have a clearer understanding going forward.

I also give them an opportunity to defend themselves. So if they can show a text message or anything, I mean, if you've ever paid rent, you're going to be able to show that you've paid rent. Yeah, but what if they pay rent to, like, a friend? Cause I've seen a lot of scams on Craigslist where people would go and list a place that's empty. You know, the tenant has no idea.

Graham Stephan
They send rent to, like, you know, some other country. They move in, the tenant says, oh, here's the lockbox combo. And they go and they take the key. And the people who moved in have no clue. Yeah.

Flash Shelton
So. Or they could stage that. They could just have a buddy be like, hey, pretend to be the landlord. I'm gonna send you like, $500. Here's some text messages that we have.

Graham Stephan
All right, done. That's, that's happening a lot right now. And, you know, the whole, like, 1200 squad or Atlanta, a lot of those people talked about the fact that they felt that they were scammed, that they're victims, okay? Whether it's honest or they're just making up that story. And I've had a lot of incidents where.

Flash Shelton
And I have a family right now in Los Angeles where they basically, you know, they had a renter. The renter moved out, sent the painter to get the house ready. Painter goes and says, hey, there's like a family living here. And the family shows a lease and says, yeah, we ordered that. We.

We rented this house on Craigslist. And how I treat it basically is, you know, I'm sorry that you got scammed. Give us all the information. Let's file. File a police report.

Give all the information you can. Who did you send the money to? Where did you send it to? And I'm sorry you got scammed, but the truth is, if it was a car, we would take the car from you because you received stolen property, a house. I'm going to take the house from you, and I'm going to give it back to the homeowner.

And then you deal with the police to get your money back and to go after the people that scammed you. Because just because you're scammed doesn't mean that it's okay for the homeowner to lose out on his home and be scammed. Also. How common is this? I don't know.

Statistically, I know that I'm hearing more and more of it. I would say that I have personally dealt with about ten in the last 45 days. Do you think that you bringing attention to it might make the situation worse? That people all of a sudden who've never thought of this could see your situation, say, wow, I never thought that I could go and do this. Do you worry about that?

Graham Stephan
Or do you think that your net positive is giving homeowners the ability to say, hey, you could take matters into your own hands? It doesn't have to be expensive. Here's what you do. Here's a clear outline. Well, first of all, I'm absolutely not telling homeowners to take the matter into their own hands, because, you know, not only is it a safety issue, but they are not allowed to homeowners, they have to be very clear that a homeowner cannot do this or they will be arrested.

Really? Yeah. There are laws against self help. The reason why I can and the reason why I could was because my mom was the homeowner and I wasn't tied to the house. That's interesting.

So if that happens to Jack, Jack couldn't go in. But if Jack has me going, that's. Okay, as long as they can't prove that he hired you and brought you in, right? Yeah. It seems so backwards that again, like you said, that if you go and file something and you get an attorney and you register documents with the court, then you can't do any of this.

So all of this has to be done. I don't wanna say outside of the legal system, but before filing anything and acknowledging their tenants. Yeah. It just limits. Like, I can't do a lockout.

Flash Shelton
Okay. I can't do a lockout. If you've acknowledged that your squatters are there. Okay. But I can talk to them and take video of them and basically show them a preview that I'm going to post their name and their work, their instagram, all their social media, and tell everybody where they are and influence them to make the right decision to leave.

Graham Stephan
And then are you worried that you're bringing attention to this? And potentially people could see this as an opportunity that they could exploit as well anytime media. Okay. And I've said many times, like we us talking about it is going to influence change, whether it's increasing it or getting rid of it, we take that chance. But in this situation, I think that is much more valuable to raise awareness so that homeowners are prepared so that they know what to do to protect their homes.

Flash Shelton
And even the bigger picture, we're starting to get states to start to change laws. That's the goal. Because if they make it criminal, that just alone is going to get most of these squatters to think twice. What are the commonalities you've noticed with people who are squatting? Is there like an age range, type of education, background?

Graham Stephan
Are these smart people? Do they usually have a criminal history? Are they one offs? What are some of the traits that they have? I wonder if they have different mental disorders, if they are actual narcissists, or they have antisocial personality disorders, or they're like sociopaths, or they have some disconnect in their brain that the average person doesn't have.

Jack Selby
Because I see these videos and they're so, like you said, entitled and self righteous, too. They think they're doing the right thing and it seems like they're void of any empathy. I think that this is tying into also why we're going to notice an influx in this, because rather it's a mental condition or not. There's a whole generation of entitlement. When I run into a squadron that's been in a location for five years, ten years, some of them even 20 years that these people have taken over these buildings and stuff.

Flash Shelton
They're middle aged, white, you know, any race, every race. But now I'm looking at like younger, like twenties and, you know, twenties and thirties and like, younger people. And right away it's just an entitlement. And there's so many areas right now in our life where we're looking at people going, oh, my God, you're just, you're just, you just act like you watch all these social media things and you're like, they're just, the mentality is entitlement. So that alone could be what's going to increase this.

I haven't met any squatters that are like, mentally or, I haven't had any issues with violent because of mental issues. But it's a total, like, the law allows me to do it. Why wouldn't I do it? I mean, that's, you know, and then, and part of me is like, well, because you're hurting somebody. But part of me is like, you're right.

I mean, bottom line is you're right. The system is broken. The system is what we have to focus on changing the laws that we have to focus on because we're not going to change people's mind. We're not going to change that. They believe that if there is a loophole to get around something, then they are entitled to use it.

We're not going to change that. So we have to just change the system. And look at me. What did I do to get squatters out? I figured out that I could use exactly the same loophole to get the squatter out.

That's what I'm doing. The only difference is I'm using it for good. I'm not using it to take advantage of someone. I'm using it to get rid of the people. So let's talk about this system because I find it very clever and also just hilarious what you're doing.

Jack Selby
It is like, so ironic. So what you do, what you do, essentially, like in the simplest of terms, is these people, they come and they squat in a client's house, and then you try to make their existence as uncomfortable as possible to where they voluntarily forsake no rent living and move out. Of a house, correct? Yes. If it gets to that, that would be like stage three for me.

Graham Stephan
You don't want to hit the stage three. So walk us through these stages. Bottom line is I would rather stay at home with my teenagers. Okay? I don't, I don't.

Flash Shelton
I'd rather not have to go move in with someone. But like, you know, for us, it's like, I do consultations, so I do zoom consultations to start off on every single case. Is that stage one? That is, that is just a, that is just to see if I'm even, you know, if I can, I'll guide them, give advice. Sometimes I'm just listening because they're feeling like no one is listening to them right now.

So sometimes I'm just literally a shoulder somebody for them to vent to. In many cases, I'm giving them advice and telling them which action they should go and with the route and, and if they can, you know, if it's something they can do on their own through other help, other resources, um, or if they can go down to the law enforcement and file, you know, no, you know, a no trespassing, you know, form and basically get them out that way, you know, there's different ways. I'll do it in a zoom. If we determine that they are going to actually hire one of my crews or myself to go and take care of it, then we'll start out with phase one would be we do surveillance and recon for a few days, maybe a week prior to even starting. I'm looking at cameras, I'm doing background screening, I'm looking at everything that I can possibly find out about these squatters.

Then we go to the location and we'll spend a few days sitting outside. If there's a. If it's an apartment, if there's a vacant apartment, we'll take over or we're sitting in trucks outside. We're basically watching them and getting to know and documenting their movements. Day four, we either, if they're leaving during those first four or five days, if they leave, then we possibly, if it's a situation where we can legally do a lockout, we lock them out, wait for them to return, and, you know, hope that when law enforcement gets there that they basically tell them the words that, you know, that I have now turned into.

The best words that I want to hear is, it's a civil matter and there's nothing we can do now. I previously go into law enforcement. Prior to every job. I talk to the supervisors, tell him who I am, what I'm going to be doing, what the address is, in hopes that the responding officer does the right thing, or I say, here, speak to your supervisor. And I explained to him, look, you are only allowed to make sure it's safe and then you can excuse yourself.

So as long as I'm on the same page with law enforcement, a lockout is successful. Now, in a case where they don't leave, we are forced to go basically to, um, to the next phase, which would be, um, impossible, move in. And that's where we're moving in. Putting cameras up in every room and just sitting down, having a conversation with them and telling them how their life is going to change. How is their life about to change?

Because they're basically, their life is a reality show. And from that day forward, everyone and anyone who wants to know who they are and if they should ever rent to them in the future, they're going to be able to see their face, their name, they're going to know all about them. And the fact that I've got a squatter list that I'm putting out and I'm going to do the squatters first and I'm going to do non paying tenants next. But the squatters list is going to have names, faces, like pictures, description of how they entered properties, the location to where a landlord in the future will be able to look up Google, go onto my website, type in a name, type in a city, and see faces of all the squatters so that when they're going to rent a place, they can make sure they're not on that list. But you know what, before we go into that, it seems like these days a lot of people are looking into the benefits of fasting.

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Jack Selby
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The link is, of course, down below in the description. Thank you so much, prolon. And back to the episode. What I found remarkable is that you said you could put cameras on the interior of the property as long as it's not within their bedroom. Their bedroom and bathroom?

Graham Stephan
Yeah. The law allows me to put cameras up anywhere. Can you film their door from the outside? Yeah, I can film. I can film.

Flash Shelton
I can put a camera in the living room or in the hallway or whatever. So can you put microphones right underneath their door where it's in the hallway, but it's right underneath their door and the pickups are facing their room? Well, you know, we're in the world of avoiding gray areas, so I probably would just. I don't know that I would want to hear anything going on in there anyway. Right.

Jack Selby
But maybe the people consuming the online reality tv show would. Right, right. I was going through this rabbit hole and thinking of all these clever ways that you could make someone extremely uncomfortable. And guys, if you can think of anything, please comment. Cause I think this is really funny.

And also livestream. A good idea. It's a good twitch channel. It's a great twitch channel. Just constantly be live streaming live streams.

There was something that existed, I think it was called, like the fishbowl or something, where they had a house and there were cameras everywhere throughout the house, and it was live streaming 24/7 it was a reality tv show. I don't know if it was on Twitch. I thought Faze did something similar. It was a content house of sorts, but I would love that, where you could just tune in and just watch some random person that's squatting to make their existence very uncomfortable. But other ideas that I had.

Could you make the house smell really bad? Could you maybe use toilets and not flush the toilets? Could you play music very, very, very loud? You know, between the hours of 10:00. P.M.

Flash Shelton
And 07:00 a.m. Everything is on the table and screeching. Heard recently that fart spray is really effective. I can imagine that. Yeah, that's a.

Jack Selby
Wow. What other ideas do you think you could employ to kick a squatter out. I would just think music. But then again, I worry that if you go to those extremes, they might become hostile. Like, it'll maybe anger people to a point where there could be a confrontation.

Graham Stephan
But then again, if it's on camera, then you could have them arrested for assault. Yeah. And I have to be very careful. If there are children, if it's elderly, I don't want to take a chance on, like, giving an elderly person a heart attack or, you know, I don't need them carried out of the house. I want to have fun with it.

Flash Shelton
And my, my person, you know, it's like, I'm serious guy it sometimes, but my personality, I'm the funny guy. I've always been the funny guy. So when I talk to these people, it's like, you know, I'm. I'm trying to, like, kind of make. Have fun with it, but, um, you know, but I have to be humane about it as well.

But, yeah, I mean, everything is on the table. But ultimately, what I have found is that the shock of a bunch of big guys coming in and sitting on their couch and cameras going up and the fact that their kids are going to be seen on TikTok, and all their friends, when they go to school are going to see their kids and hear that their friends parents aren't paying rent and they're squatters. That's not something a family wants to deal with. So if it's a family, they're moving out. The hardest thing part for me is somebody who doesn't care about their reputation.

They have nothing to lose. That's the, the hardest one for me. I have one that you can see on my, on outside the box of flash you can see on the YouTube. I called it crazy squatter caught in the dark. You know, she's literally climbing in a bedroom window.

I have removed electricity. I have removed access to the rest of the house, removed the bathroom, and she still climbs in and out of this bedroom window because she's determined to stay there until the old woman passes away, because she has it in her mind that this is gonna be her house. I mean, that seems like mental illness. To me, but mental illness? I mean, she's got $130,000 in the bank account, and she's, she works, and she's like a normal person.

And she figured out that if she could become a caregiver and go in and make entrance to a home, that nobody'd be able to get her out. She's, she's smart, so she's still there she's still there? No. Where is this? Culver City, California.

Jack Selby
You cannot block her out of this bedroom by boarding up that. No, because the cause law enforcement has been called way too many times, so there's already there's a record of her living there. I'm working with social services. And the other big factor here is that caregivers have access to, you know, to their bank accounts, so they drain all their money. We're looking to relocate her.

Flash Shelton
Her case is the reason why I started to go fund me for helping elderly victims. Because many times, I mean, it's not just elderly, but by the time they call me, they have no resources. Pay for an attorney. She's lived with this woman for over two years because she can't afford to fight to get her out. Why don't you just get that woman fired?

I would just fired. She was fired. So what happened with that Culver City example? How did this occur? How did she meet the older lady?

The older lady hired her through an agency. The agency supplies a caregiver. The caregiver goes in. She wasn't caregiving. The old lady says, I want her fired.

The agency fires her and says, she's like, okay, we'll get her out of my house. And the agency says, well, we fired her, but there's nothing we can do to get her out of your house. You know, caregivers, many times they're live in caregivers, so they're considered renters. How does the caregiver get access to the bank account, though? Because caregivers do the elderly people's banking.

They go and they make deposits for them and withdrawals for them. They gave power of attorney to this person. I don't know specifics if this particular one, but I would imagine in a lot of cases, they get power of attorney. Why can't you make some, like, really horrible obstacle course for her to be able to get to her window or just like spray, fart spray or all in the armed. So it's funny you say that, because the Adam Fleischman one.

Have you ever seen there's a movie called boxing Helen? I believe I have the name, right? But boxing Helen, you know, woman was abducted, right? And she's finds herself locked in a room, and this sick whatever, starts putting up barriers, barricades. This woman makes the room smaller and smaller and smaller throughout this movie.

Smaller, smaller, smaller, until at the very end, she's in, like, a little three by three box. My threats to the Adam flight, to Adam Fleischman, was that, you know, law enforcement said he had a room. He had access to a room. That's what he was given. So we started blocking him out from other services in the house.

Laundry, kitchen, refrigerator, locked. Okay. What I had told him my plan was, I said, look, law enforcement says I have to give you access to a bedroom, but it doesn't say how. So what I had planned to do, and I had told him that basically I was going to block him out. I was either going to have him go through the bedroom window, or I was going to literally block up the front door and create a little tunnel that he would have to crawl in to get to his bedroom.

Graham Stephan
For those unaware, the founder of Umami Burger. Yes. Which I've been to that restaurant many times at the Grove. I mean, it's a very popular chain of burger restaurants. That's unfortunate.

Really good. It's delicious. And the burgers are expensive. I mean, if you want to spend $20 to $30 on a single hamburger, this place is delicious. But Adam is the founder of that.

So you would think that he's the type where he's got a lot of money, he's got a lot to lose to explain. He started squatting in this house, and you documented this whole thing, and you made his life very hard where he just voluntarily left on his own. He left. He turned violent. We were.

Flash Shelton
We were planning a move in. Now to give you a history. This, this older woman, she called herself elderly, but she was actually only 62. I found out later she. She had just lost her husband.

She lived in this house for 29 years in Hollywood hills, and she was forced to financially sell the home that she had been in. She found a buyer that allowed her to stay there and gave her the rights to rent out three rooms to afford to stay there. So she put ads out on Craigslist. She had renters, and she had a couple renters. And then this guy Adam shows up, and, you know, she thought, oh, this guy's successful.

You know, he's. You look online, he supposedly made, like, $70 million. And he shows up. The very, her very first, you know, interaction with this man. He shows up with a backpack, goes in there.

She says, you know, shows him the room, and she's. And he says, I'll take it. She's like, well, what do you mean, you'll take it? He said, yeah, I'll take it. She says, well, I'll let you know if I'm going to give it to you.

And he said, no, you don't understand. I'm not leaving. And she said, I'll call the cops. And he said, fine. By the time the cops show up, he's emptied his backpack, put clothes in the closet.

He's a renter. So that's how their relationship started, according to her. Then he kind of talked her into doing this business thing and, and said, oh, we're going to do, we don't even need the other roommates because we're going to do this pop up restaurant using your view, and, and then said, so we're going to, we're going to do this. I'm going to hire a chef. They're going to come and we're going to make so much money.

They go to some store and buy stuff for sushi and buy all the stuff while they're there. I have a witness that came forward that witnessed, that saw her, saw him reach into her purse and steal her credit card, used her credit card to pay for it. Then after they do this pop up thing and she's supposed to get money from him, he didn't pay her money. She stuck with a credit card bill. That's how it all started.

So. And then she refused to give him a lease. And he was like, well, I'm not going to pay rent because you won't give me a lease. So that's how it all started. And then, you know, she contacted me after he was there for, like, four months.

That's when I initially did my first intervention with him. That was what I had to go on when I went to approach him, you know, watching that video, you can tell how just narcissistic and how there's the whole victimology and he just, just, I couldn't get him to show any kind of compassion whatsoever. He basically said, she brought herself, it's her fault. You know, we had planned to move in, and then she had a, she ended up leaving the house and was sleeping in her car because she was afraid because he was acting really weird. And, and she had a friend go there to check on the house, and he basically threw this woman to the ground and threatened her life and told her to write an email to him stating that everything that I was saying was a lie and that he's a renter and that, that, you know, that he's, you know, got a lease and he pays rent and all this stuff.

She reluctantly wrote the email, but you could tell she sent it to me. You can tell the wording was not like something you would, you would actually be writing. I wouldn't be writing an email to you referring to you as a third person. So it's. It didn't make sense.

But because he got violent with this woman, and I did an interview with her, and you can see it on my channel, she's all bruised up, her legs, her arms. She was crying. She was fearful. She left the state of California because he basically told her that her daughter's going to grow up without a mother. Okay?

So that caused me to turn up the heat. And instead I just started basically making threats. And I told him that there wasn't a law to protect him from me. And I told him exactly what law enforcement would say if I locked, if I kicked him out on the street. He called law enforcement on camera.

They told him, he's right. There's nothing we can do. The fear of being homeless got him to move. What was his story? What was his side of the argument that he.

Graham Stephan
That it was, like, her fault or that he signed a lease. But I'm trying to think of, like, why this guy would do that. I don't know how he lost the restaurants. I don't know, you know, I don't know what, you know, why he is even in this situation. And I've had a dozen people reach out to me now that want to come forward because he has been scamming, doing restaurant scams with, like, many people and taking their money.

Flash Shelton
What I do know is that, you know, he believes, totally believes that he was the victim and that he would have paid rent if she gave him a lease, but she didn't want him there, so she wasn't going to give him a lease. She told him to leave. So just because you want to lease, he just felt like, you know, I have rights. Even non paying tenants have rights. And he, he just stuck to that, that whole thing that I'm not a squatter, I'm a tenant.

You know, she didn't sign. She didn't give me a lease. Why would I pay her money? What I found absurd in some of your videos on this instance is he was talking with his friend, and he said to his friend, like, oh, when she dies, you can have first grab, like, at her room, which is just insane to say. And unfortunately, you mentioned this in your videos, but she actually ended her life after 29 days.

After I got him out. After you got him out. Which you would think that she'd be recovered from this instance. No. After it was resolved, he tore her down financially so much that she was on the verge of losing the house that she had been in with her husband.

Her husband had just passed away. Jimmy Buffett, literally that week, had just passed away, and he was like a father figure to her. She was actually in the coral reef band as one of the backup singers. It was just a lot of loss. And then the fact of being faced with not being able to pay rent.

He had scared out all the roommates, so she had no income. How long was he there for? Five months. Wow. And do you know what he's doing now?

Jack Selby
Do you think he feels remorse? He absolutely does not feel remorse. I spoke with him the day after she passed away or the day after I was notified she passed away. And I had told him, if something happens to her, it's on you. So I reminded him of that, and he basically said, you know, sorry, her life was cut short, but, you know, she brought it on herself.

Flash Shelton
Zero remorse. He, like, to this day, he still says that it's all lies and that, you know, that he's. You know, he's the victim. That just sounds like a sociopath. It just sounds like you can't feel.

Graham Stephan
How were you able to post these videos online of him? Were you ever worried about any legal repercussion that he could come after you and say, hey, you're posting my information online. It's defamatory. He threatened it. But the bottom line is, the way I do it, he tells the story, not me.

Flash Shelton
I wasn't the one saying this stuff. I let him talk. You know, narcissists, if you can just pull a little string, you can get them to just. They just diarrhea the mouth. So, um.

And that's what he did. He, like, for an hour and a half, he was telling me the whole story. So what does it mean to be a civil matter? Like, instead of a criminal matter or something like that? When.

Jack Selby
When it gets sent to civil court, what does that actually look like when it does eventually get solved? If it does, besides the fact that there's no, like, criminal element to it, no one's going to jail over it. You know, civil. The civil process is basically all about paperwork to get to a settlement. So there's all these, you know, it's like, okay, you got to give them a three day notice.

Flash Shelton
Now you got to give them a 30 day notice. Now you got to give them 60 day notice. Now there's a 90 day notice, then they have the ability to say, okay, well, your honor, I just filed for bankruptcy. Okay, that gives you an extra 90 days. Oh, I don't have a place to go.

Well, okay, I'm gonna extend it, you know? So why does the judge grant these. So, okay, so just recently, I had a retired judge wrote this big message comment on my YouTube, and he said, he's like, look, I have been on the bench for however many years, and he said, he says, I have, I have oversaw, like, hundreds of these cases, and I was bound by a system that required me to rule in the favor of the tenant or the squatter over the homeowners because there are these boundaries that they have to live by. So, you know, he says every single time it was done, regrettably, and he commended me on what I'm doing, said what I was doing was fully within the law. And, you know, it basically had said, like, you know, I wish this was, like, done, you know, 20 years.

Graham Stephan
What are the boundaries? Is it that they have to believe the deF, the defendant in that case? Like, they have to give them the benefit of the doubt just to be 100% innocent until. What I have learned is that because homeowners are never presumed the tenant, tenants always are presumed to have possession. So a homeowner can live in a house or they can rent out a house.

Flash Shelton
So you never know what the situation is and what to believe. So, you know, a tenant is always going to be a tenant. They're not ever the owner. It was done, in a way to actually even out the process. Like, they have all the money, they have all the resources.

The tenant might not. If the tenant isn't paying rent, he can't afford, you know, an attorney, we're going to even out the process. So they're both on even ground. And what ended up happening is it just totally flipped to where the tenants have all the power. Because the fact is, you can't assume a homeowner has money.

It's just because they own a home. The bank owes the, owns the home, they're paying a mortgage. They're basically a renter to a property that's owned by a bank. So just so to assume a homeowner has all the resources and the money was wrong in the very beginning. That makes sense.

Graham Stephan
So there's no real penalty for squatting. It's paperwork, zero. And then if they lose, they just move out. If they lose. So in the end, if they lose, they're given another 30 days to move out.

Flash Shelton
There's no restitution, there's no court costs. In many cases, there's no attorney fees and damage, no restitution. So I don't get it. So, so my understanding with that, let's just say the homeowner wins, they move out. My understanding is that the homeowner can pursue a judgment against them, but collecting on the judgment is near impossible.

Graham Stephan
Is that correct? In most cases, even when you're dealing with a non paying tenant, even though they're not paying rent and they might be saving money or something, what are the odds of collecting on a judgment? When somebody has something, let it go. Not anything. They don't own a property.

Flash Shelton
Most tenants don't own another property sometimes. So if you're just an average viewer and you have a home right now, how can you protect your home in the best way possible from people coming in squatting? Would that be setting up surveillance around your house? Even if you do have surveillance and you film someone, what if you just accidentally leave the front door unlocked so it doesn't look like they're breaking in and they just are wearing a backpack, and they go sit down in a room and put their stuff in the closet? I have a consultation with a homeowner that asked that very question, and he, he signed up to do a Zoom consultation because he wanted personal, like, personal advice.

Bottom line is the cheapest, the less expensive, the least expensive thing and the most effective thing that you need is a camera with Wi Fi, a camera that you can see from anywhere in the world on your phone so that you can document when somebody enters your home an alarm system that has armed response. That's like number one and number two, basically after that, you know, go get, go file a form for no trespassing and put no trespassing signs that's registered with your local, you know, law enforcement office that says if anyone enters your property, they can be arrested. And then, you know, because with those three, you're pretty much solid. Because at that point, the difference between arresting a squatter and a squatter gaining rights is being able to prove when they entered the property and that they entered the property illegally. And at that point, you're not going to need the squatter hunter.

Graham Stephan
Now, I'm curious what lawyers take on these cases, though. Cause you're saying that these squatters have access to, like, really great legal resources. Who takes this on, and why are attorneys doing this? Well, a lot of, a lot of states have legal aid like New York. New York homeowners don't stand a chance.

Flash Shelton
Not only does a squatter have to just figure out a way to stay into a property, regardless of how they get in for 30 days, and then they become a full fledged tenant. New York. But then they have resources that help that basically fund the attorney process for a squatter, but not a homeowner. So a homeowner, as soon as they run out of money, they're basically, you know, on the verge of losing their home. So there are attorneys that only specialize in, you know, in tenant rights and those same tenant rights attorneys deal with squatters.

You know, like, if you're a mechanic and you only concentrate on headlights, you're going to be the best headlight mechanic ever, because that's what you're concentrating on. And you've got attorneys that have dedicated their field to just being able to keep a squatter in a home. So they're going to appear to be the best attorney. Now, why don't homeowners have the same legal resources that tenants have? Because I know it's assumed that the homeowner has money and that they own the home and thereby they have equity and they could afford it and the tenant doesn't.

Graham Stephan
But in a lot of cases, the homeowner might be spending more money every month maintaining the property, have very little equity in it. Yeah. And you basically just said the reason, because the squatter is like, okay, I'm not paying rent. I've got cash, you know, cash hidden away. I'm not using bank accounts.

Flash Shelton
You know, who knows? They're able to show that they need the help, and then you've got the homeowner who either through equity or the fact that you can't, you know, you can't have a bank account with a certain amount of money. There's certain things that you have that will prohibit you from getting that legal aid. What do you think about Ron DeSantis new bill in Florida, which makes it a first degree misdemeanor for making a false statement in writing. For example, a forged lease agreement, a second degree felony for any person who unlawfully trespasses or occupies a residential dwelling, and a first degree felony for knowingly advertising the sale or rent of a residential property without legal authority.

Well, first of all, I would say that, you know, I was honored to be a part of his bill signing. I think that it's a step in the right direction for homeowners finally getting the support that they need and deserve. You know, there needs to be, you know, this. But at the same time, it comes with responsibility, because part of that also says that a homeowner can't file a false report against a tenant, so they can't say that a tenant isn't a tenant. So there are penalties for a homeowner as well.

It's starting to get other states to take notice as well. That you know, that some of these are just common sense things. So if it is such a common sense issue, do you see it as something that's partisan? Is there a certain side that is unwilling to negotiate on something like this, or is this just bipartisan and we wouldn't be able to draw any distinction on who supports it and who doesn't? You know, there are many things that we have that should be about the people and have nothing to do with politics.

And I have made it very clear that politics need to be left at the door on this one. I believe this is 100% has nothing to do with party versus party squatters. I can guarantee you are not asking you your political views before they take over your home. Recently there have been some reports out that it's a right wing agenda and that it's rare. The people that are saying it's rare, you know, I will go head to head with them any single day because it's not rare.

I was at a going away party yesterday for a friend of mine, and out of 20 people, three of them had squatters. Just by coincidence, we just started talking because my friend was like, oh, you know who he is, and they had active squatters, and they're like, oh, my God, how do I get ahold of you? It's not rare. It's a, it's not. And it is a people thing.

This is not a political thing. Are there certain states that are really squatter friendly and some states that are really not, like, name a state that. You think would be squatter friendly. California. Yes, California is squatter friendly.

Name a state that you think that would not be squatter. Texas, Oklahoma. Okay, I would. Alabama, I would think. But Tennessee has a problem with squatters.

You know, like, everyone wants to go to Tennessee. You know, is there, like, Texas, people have squatters. Even states that are friendly or, or not friendly to squatters have issues because law enforcement, that's not a high priority for them. So they're backlogged. So even a state that says, well, we don't really have squatter rights, we have tenant rights because the lines are still blurred.

They still need to revamp their laws. This is, you know, this is every state, every single state in the United States has some sort of issue. Call them tenants or call them squatters, but the states that say we don't have squatter rights, they have tenant rights, and those squatters are becoming tenants. So it's still the same thing. So bottom line is there's no state that right now, from what I've seen, that's completely 100% safe.

Jack Selby
What are your thoughts on Castle doctrine, which is someone's ability to defend their own home using force? I mean, I believe in it. The, the limitation when it comes to squatters is squatters aren't breaking into your home when you're there. Castle doctrine, I believe, should be the use of force defending a home that you're occupying. You should not be able to go into a home that's being occupied by a squatter, a tenant, a relative, anyone, and use force at that point, rather, regardless of what extreme that force is.

Have you ever seen a situation where someone's been at home while people were starting to squat? No. So it's, so these squatters are calculated. They're calculated. They take point of when these people are in the home and when they're.

Graham Stephan
Not at home, probably to squat too. You have to be at least somewhat knowledgeable on like their comings and goings. Yeah. Which house they want to target. You know, there are some sites that are helping and training squatters.

Really? Yeah. And there's a couple in the UK and I think I haven't, I don't know for sure, but I've heard that there's one that I'm trying to find out about in the US, but, you know, a lot of times it's a for sale sign. Another big one is I've got this, this group in Illinois that I'm working with now, a big realtor group, and what they're finding is that, you know, a lot of them have this system now to where you can contact them. I want to look at this house and you fill out a form and you send them a copy or driver's license and then they send you a code to get in the door.

Flash Shelton
You don't actually meet with an agent. You go in, punch in the code, go in and they're just staying in the house. That seems like such a big loophole. That's so common. I remember when I was a real estate agent in LA that everything would be on a lockbox.

Graham Stephan
And I mean, it's never customary to give that to the buyer or the tenant, but there are so many times that I've seen it where it's like, oh, I'm not there last minute, I'm running late, can I get the tenant the lockbox? Come, they're going to run in really quick. Thankfully, never had an issue, but seems like a very easy way for tenants to go in and say, well, I had the key, I got in. Even if there's a camera. Hey, it shows that I had the combo to get in here.

Flash Shelton
I have two, two existing ones that I haven't started on where it was a tenant moving out, and literally squatters moved in before the crew came to get the house ready for the next people. And these people are, you know, in a lot of cases, they're actually breaking in. So they don't need a key, they don't need a lockbox. You know, in my case, they broke in the back door. I can I pick a lock?

They can pick a lock. I have a situation where they got a locksmith to actually gain them, give them access. We got video of a locksmith picking the lock and getting the. Letting the squatters in this house. So, you know, it's the.

They're smart, and they're figuring out ways. So Graham had a great idea that every lease agreement should be notarized. That. I've brought that up many times. That was my.

Jack Selby
If that is such a simple and obvious solution to this, I have some. Inside information about that. I have been saying when I've outlined what I would do to change a law, like, if I'm meeting with a governor, I have outlined, and one of the things I have outlined is notarizing leases. Right. It's so funny.

Flash Shelton
Should be a no brainer. Yeah. However, the representative in Florida that wrote the law bill that DeSantis signed told me personally at the signing that in his law proposal, it had notarized leases. It did not get accepted. When they voted the process in, they denied the notary part of it, and the reason was, and they all stopped, and they said, do you know how many contracts we write?

If we said that a lease would. Had to be notarized, then we would have to say that every contract has to be notarized. So they didn't want to touch it because they didn't think that it would pass. So they took the notarized leases out of the law in order to get. But it seems, it seems like I get their logic, because we sign a lot of contracts over docusign, and it's very easy.

Graham Stephan
If someone could just type in a name and a stupid email address and they docusign, and, you know, and I would have no idea. In fact, I had something signed a long time ago that was not me. I had an agency reach out to me, and they said, hey, Graham, we've been trying to get a hold of you. We had this agreement we're supposed to be representing. You remember this?

Flash Shelton
Yeah. And they said that they've been trying to reach me or something like that, but we had this agreement, and I was in breach of that agreement. I was like, I've never talked to you before. I have no idea who you are. And so I got on the phone with him.

Graham Stephan
I'm trying to explain, like, I've never talked to you before. I don't know you. And they said, well, do you work with Jack? And I'm like, yeah, I work with Jack. And I called Jack.

I'm like, dude, did you sign this on my behalf? And Jack's like, I have no idea who they are. And so I kept trying to figure this out because I'm like, you didn't speak with Jack. You didn't speak with me. Can you show me the communication?

And they did. And they sent me emails from somebody, took my name and, like, added a little thing to it. I think it was en. Yeah, that was it. It was like Graham Stephan with an en.

And they made this whole email address, but they were reaching out to agencies, like, trying to sign, like, deals with me, pretending to be me. And they had this whole community over email saying, like, that they're me. And the agency never verified it. They never called me, they never spoke with me, nothing. They just took it at face value because the name kind of matched up, signed an agreement and was never me.

So they apologized, thankfully. But, like, it makes me wonder how much is out there. Like, I've seen some stuff out there where people have said, oh, we've talked to your representative. I have no idea who they are. Right.

Jack Selby
But wouldn't it be pretty easy just to write into the code that it has to be a house? Yeah, yeah. For all real estate related transactions, have a notary. Because I. We were talking to Hassan Piker about this, and that was my one thing.

Graham Stephan
I was like, when it comes to squanders, just notarize a lease. If you don't have a notarized lease, it's non binding. And I also thought notaries should include video, and it should include not just a thumbprint, but it should include a video of you signing it or some sort of facial recognition, like they do. Like they do with passports. Like, they just scan your eyes, like the clear scan the eyes.

And that's with the signature on a lease for all real estate transactions. That would solve it. What I told this representative when he told me this, I said, yeah. I said, so they are basically saying that a lease is the same then as every other contract. And I said, so when I'm not, when I'm done with squatters.

Flash Shelton
I'm not done. I said, because then I'm going to go after that. And I said, because right now the lease is the one contract in the United States that's not treated like a contract. Every other contract has an end date. You sever ties.

A lease agreement, end date just says we start a new process. So if we're going to treat it like a contract and we're going to say we can't notarize it, because then we'd have to notarize all contracts, then that's actually start making a lease agreement, an actual contract. That just sounds like such an obvious workaround. You just say it has to be, you know, a lease agreement on a house, and they're like, oh, well, we can't do that. Every, I feel like every contract at this point can and should be notarized.

Graham Stephan
When you think that now you could notarize significantly signatures over the Internet, have you seen this? You just come on a video call with somebody. They verify you hold up your driver's license next to you. They get down your information. It's an online notary.

It's a thing. But it should be like you have facial recognition on your iPhone that even through docusign, I'm surprised it's not a thing. Like on docusign, you should be able to register with your driver's license or passport, your face and your fingerprint, because almost every computer now has that. So that when you sign a docusign, it takes a screenshot or video of your face for a few seconds. You put your thumbprint down on the computer or your phone recognizes it and it knows that it should be a thing.

Flash Shelton
Well, I tell people when homeowners, like if they do a zoom with me or when I'm talking, somebody asks me about how to secure everything. And what about renters and things like that? I tell them to start notarizing all your leases because regardless if it's required or not, if you ever go through the civil process and you ever go to in front of a judge or whatever, they have a fake lease. If you can show that your notarized leases have a different signature. You know, I got my lease notarized when I went up.

I got from my mom and I got it notarized before I went up north, before I went to deal with them, because if they had a fake one, I wanted to notarize one showing her signature. So I suggest the homeowners just do it regardless of the law. But, you know, the thing is, is that how it was explained to me is that when they're trying to pass a law bill or they're trying to do something, they're trying to get it passed, you know, past both sides. You know, you're, you're dealing with both spectrums of the political, you know, body. They have to, you know, that that just happened to be one of the things that they had to remove because they weren't going to get it to pass.

Graham Stephan
Why is that not the case also in other states? Why is it just Florida that seems to be taking this seriously and almost every other state is somewhat in a limbo? Well, you know, I say it's because squatters and squatter laws and making it criminal is common sense. And, you know, and, you know, DeSantis is, you know, from what I understand, he's known as the common sense governor. So, you know, it had to start somewhere.

Flash Shelton
So, you know, he's showing with a lot of the, he's got a lot of different things coming out right now, including stopping the retail theft. You know, we allow, you can go in, they can steal up to $5,000 and you're not allowed to stop them. So they just, he signed a bill I just saw recently to stop that something is going to happen in this country to reset us back to where we're all on the same page. Yeah, I saw PBD was recently talking about a new proposal in San Francisco that would make it so that big corporations like big box stores like Targets and Nordstrom's can't just move out. They have to give notice to the community for several months before they choose to voluntarily leave.

Graham Stephan
How crazy is that? Because they say that it's hurting the neighborhoods and that consumers need to have time to figure out other options for their shopping. So if like a Walgreens decides one day, hey, we have too much theft, we're closing down, they'd have to give. Three months notice, then stiffen the penalty for looting. You know, for, you know, it's like when you got people on the streets burning things down and breaking into stores, it's like, start setting an example.

Flash Shelton
Start showing these businesses that you're going to take care of them when that happens. You know, you want to have your stipulations. If they feel protected and they can afford to stay there and they want to move, and you want to say, you should let us know, but they're loot. They're moving because of survival. Now, I'm curious, how does your business work?

Graham Stephan
How did you realize that you could turn your one experience into a repeatable. Business, it was, it was not intentional. In my first video, I even say that, you know, the realtors up there, the sheriff up there, they were all saying, oh, my gosh, you can make a killing up here. And I had said, I laughed it off. I'm like, yeah, I don't want to do this for a living.

Flash Shelton
And people were writing me saying, hey, you know, everybody loves you. You know, they support you, and you're getting all this, so why don't you use it for something good? So right away, something good for me was law change that I can help everyone if I start fighting for law change. So I announced that. And then, you know, it was just kind of like this thing.

It was kind of like, okay, so how can I, what can I do to keep awareness going and build it even stronger? Because me just saying I want to fight for law change wasn't enough. So I thought, well, the only way I can is if I really just start helping people one at a time. If I start helping them, then I'm going to bring awareness to it, and at that point, it will give me a stronger message for law change. My number one goal is law change.

So I essentially is trying, am trying to work myself out of business. You know, I wasn't trying to start a business for financial reasons. This business was started to basically stop what's created my business in the first place. I spend so much time on my zooms, I'm literally living like reverse psychology because I start every zoom with, I've studied their. They'll send me an email of everything that's going on before I talk to them.

I've studied it. And my number one thing about that is how can I teach them to take care of it without me? I do not ever enter a zoom thinking I want to go take care of this one, because I don't. The truth is, I would rather live with my teenagers. I go onto these zooms and I'm talking to them about how they can do it.

Go do this. Go find, let's just say I have a squatter. What would your advice be to me on that? Zoom in like a quick, well, like. I would tell you, do you have any resources?

Do you have any friends? Do you have, you know, do you have a contractor? Do you have anybody that you can lease the property to that can, that can literally move in on this property, move in and, you know, and stay there until they leave or, you know, if are they leaving? Oh, they're going to work or they're gone. Oh, they're like, gone all the time.

They just, they come back and they're here a couple days and then they're gone. I'm like, then have them move in and occupy the house. So when they come back, the house is the same, basically the same thing that they did to you. So, you know, I'll just go. I mean, every scenario is different.

And then I also have to learn about the squatters before I can give that advice. But I spend so much time just kind of going, okay, well, you don't need me. I have one yesterday that I told him I went through this whole thing and I said, look, you don't need me. He's like, so I can make my uncle a leaseholder and let him move in the house. I'm like, absolutely.

I said, as long as he says the right things, law enforcement won't ask him to leave. But what's funny with reverse psychology, what happens? The more I tell them that they can do it on their own, the more they want me. What are the right things to say to the police officers? You know, basically that, you know, I have a lease, I have items in this home.

You know, this is a civil matter. Remind them that their job basically stops at that point. They can't enter the home. Um, and, and basically just kind of tell them that it's a civil matter and say, look, they are well within their right to take me to civil court. I tell people, I'm like, look, you have a right.

You have rights. You have right to civil process. Unfortunately, now you have to fight the civil process, living somewhere else. And as of today, no one's ever tried. How much do you charge for your services to actually go and move in a property?

It ranges anywhere from, you know, $1,000 to 20,000. We are going to do a move in will. It'll basically be, you know, it's 5000 a week. It's basically, it's surprisingly affordable when you compare it to an attorney. But unfortunately, right now I'm getting either.

I'm getting two, two types of people. One that's already put out 20 grand or 30 grand to an attorney, and they're already out of money, and they're reaching out to me, like, looking for the miracle solution, or you have the one that hasn't paid a dime yet, and he still just doesn't understand the fact that he's going to have to. If I can't get him out for 20,000, I'm not going to be able to get him out. There's just, there's not, you know, but, but we go into it looking at, look, it's like I tell people, look, I can guarantee my efforts. I can guarantee what I'm going to do.

I can't guarantee reaction. So just like an attorney, when they go through that process, they're never going to guarantee they're going to get your squatter out. So I can't guarantee 100% I'm going to get your squatter out. But you have to go into it thinking that it's worth a try because the alternative is so much more expensive and so much longer. So what's the hardest squatter that you've had to deal with so far?

The one that climbs in the bedroom window that has nothing to lose. And, and I have an elderly woman that refuses to leave. You know, when you have a homeowner that's, that's there that we have to relocate because we can't go in. And you have a squatter who doesn't care about not having a bathroom, not having electricity, and climbing in and out of a broken bedroom. Where does the squatter use the restroom?

Jack Selby
Bucket. Bucket, probably. Why is it the homeowner leaving? What's her issue with relocating or just finding a hotel or, I mean, anywhere? An Airbnb.

Flash Shelton
Yeah, I mean, we're, we're trying to work that out. I mean, they're, they are. I've got social services involved. Is it a money issue that she. Just doesn't know there's a money issue?

She's out of money completely. There's also, you know, an issue with, it's really hard to get, like, somebody that's, like, old and been in a place and in a position, you know, position for so many years to get. Them to, like, I would imagine a GoFundme and just the charity of someone locally who has, like, a spare house or an empty house that they're doing would love to give it to her for like, hey, two weeks. Unfortunately, the GoFundme for that one, you know, it's spelled out what it's for. And because I run across an elderly situation, this is pretty common.

So, you know, it's, that GoFundme is just, it's not making any, there's no contributions. Really? Yeah. How much is in there? So, like, in the last, I don't know.

I haven't checked recently, but the last time I checked, it was like, it's been up for like, four months and had like, $25 on there. How much, how much does she need? So if we're gonna. It depends on if we have to do move in with this woman. So if a move in is gonna be anywhere from ten to 20,000, it just depends because we're paying guys and we're paying, you know, it's like, my guys aren't doing it for.

Jack Selby
We'll leave the link to the GoFundme in the description of this video. But, like, I had a situation in Woodland Hills where, you know, I used the fact that, you know, when I get to know these people and if they have a criminal record and they have a felony, you know, some felonies prohibit living with or owning or possessing a firearm. You know, so, um, there's, you know, I've had a couple situations now to where as soon as I find that out, I just make residence with a firearm. Once I make residence with a firearm in the location, I tell them, look, I'm here with a firearm, and you're not allowed to be here anymore. So we can call law enforcement, get them involved.

Flash Shelton
But I believe it's a parole violation. You know, to be on the same premise as a firearm. Yeah. Are you ever worried about your safety. In being armed or.

You have to be. And that's what helps with the preparation. I just, you know, I have to go in fully, you know, body armor and be prepared, but I'll never go into a situation that I don't, that I don't have time to prep for as much as these people, homeowners will email me or, and it's, like, urgent, you know, whatever. It's, I can't rush what I'm doing, you know, nothing at that point, once they're already in your house, nothing is urgent, you know, so it's, you know, it's all about being prepared and, and I know that, you know, I can't do it by myself anymore. I have to make sure that I've got people around me, and if that means adding guys and adding bodies.

And the other thing I'm always doing is I make sure that I'm always on camera. I don't do anything without putting everyone on camera. So that way it's protecting, I say it's protecting me and them. And you're talking about building out a squatter team, like a squatter hunter team. Yeah.

I've been building for the last, I guess maybe the last month I did a video about it, and I've been telling people that if they want to help get squatters out, you know, to email me to submit@squatterhunters.com. And basically submit their, their name, tell them, tell us about themselves, what makes them a good fit, their location, any qualifications. And I've had enormous, like, I haven't even been able to get through these, all the applicants. But one of the things that has, I guess, you know, in a way, surprised me, but I'm so excited about it is the law enforcement, the law enforcement reaction to this of guys that are retired that say they've been on the force for 30 years and have had to unfortunately, walk away from homeowners and feeling so horrible that I'm finally giving them an opportunity to help a homeowner. So a lot of retired law enforcement, and then I have active law enforcement that say, hey, I just need to get it approved with the department because any job we do outside of the department has to be approved.

But we want to help you. We want to, we want to be one of your squatter hunters. So, so I'm looking forward to working with law enforcement in that way. And, uh, you know, it doesn't have to be law enforcement. I've got military.

I've got just anybody, you know, because it's, I'm going to train them to do what I do. But most of the time, their whole job is just going to be basically to keep their mouth shut and stand, be, stand behind me. So, you know, because I don't want people talking and getting into the conversations because the more people talking, the more exaggerated it gets, the more chance of violence it gets, because now you got people arguing. So most of these guys are just going to be, it's like closed mouth, stand there, look tough, and that's it. Have you received any backlash for what you're doing and who's against you?

Graham Stephan
Who opposes what you're doing? Squatters. They're the only ones. Any disclaimer on your video, if you could somehow figure out who that is and add that to the blacklist of. Renters, I've had some people that, you know, it's so funny because they'll come, they'll threaten me physically, they'll threaten me, whatever, ruin me.

Flash Shelton
And it's so funny because then they'll delete it. Like, it goes away. And so I'll screenshot all of those. And I, and I often think I'm going to do a video highlighting them. But, you know, I feel like it's either, it's squatters.

And also there's been a misconception about me wanting, you know, squatter law change. And, you know, a lot of people fight back against me and refuse to sign my petition and they refuse to, you know, and they'll comment in there that they don't want these laws to change because it will affect their tenant rights. And so one of the things that I'm really trying to get out there is that tenant rights will still exist. Tenants will still deserve civil process. If you, you know, if, whether you have a lease or not, you're going to be able to show communication with an owner.

If you can show a text message, an email showing some acknowledgement that you were there legally, then you're still going to be protected by civil process. So I get, you know, a lot of renters, a lot of people that think that they're going to lose their tenant rights don't like what I'm doing. And a lot of times when I have a go back and forth with them, you know, then we end on good terms and they're like, oh, I didn't look at it that way or something. But, you know, a lot of them, I have to assume they're squatters. What do you think of the Beverly Hills house?

Graham Stephan
It seems like that's a very common thing now. Like Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, you have these huge mansions that are owned by people overseas. Someone will come in there and throw these wild parties. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's another one of those things where, you know, you, you know, it's wrong and, and then you're like, well, I mean, we have a system that's letting them do it and they're just a bunch of kids that are basically going, you know, hey, it's, we can do it. We can make a, we can make a bunch of money here.

Flash Shelton
And they're charging, you know, charging entrance fees and renting out rooms and, you know, so they're looking at themselves as entrepreneur, you know, like, oh, my gosh, I figured out a system. Yeah, I mean, ultimately, you know, it's, it's wrong. It needs to stop. But, yeah, that's a, that's becoming kind of a new thing. And it's, it's like a whole new generation of squatting.

Graham Stephan
The one that really brought it to my attention was the Brentwood example where the, I think it was a dentist lived in the main house, built out a guest unit. Didn't get that properly permitted, so it didn't have the certificate of occupancy. So he did all the work, but he, but he had a contractor do it. The lady moved in with a lease. I think she moved in purposely knowing that it was, you know, unpermitted because it didn't have that certificate and then just stayed there for years.

Right. She actually entered through Airbnb. That was it. Yeah, she entered through Airbnb and then gave him a sob story when the Airbnb contract was up and asked him to stay for an extra couple weeks. The mistake he made was not putting it back through Airbnb and putting it back on them.

Flash Shelton
So he made a mistake and, you know, she took advantage of it. She actually. I was on my way up there to do an intervention with her and to film a documentary when the day that she left, they told her I was on my way. I doubt she left because of me, but I kind of had fun with the fact that I was the first form of media to actually video and take pictures of the unit after she left, because she left, like, literally 15 minutes before I got there. I thought it was hilarious.

Graham Stephan
She was treated like a celebrity. Like, when. When that story broke, I remember just, like, maybe it was TMZ who was taking photos of her with, like, a mystery man at dinner. I was like, oh, my gosh, she's, like, getting trailed and followed and photographed and videoed everywhere she goes. Yeah.

Flash Shelton
Now her face is one of them on my website. Yeah. There was an also another story recently where a New York homeowner was arrested after a standoff with a squatter. She changed the locks, and as a homeowner, she's not allowed to lock them out of the unit, and she was arrested for that. And that was a story that also went crazy viral because here's a homeowner trying to take their property back matters into their own hands, and they're the one arrested.

Graham Stephan
It seems backwards. Yeah. And I think that that's a good message that homeowners need to understand that the only person arrested in those situations will be the homeowner. You know, so if you take the matters into your own hands, just expect that you're going to be arrested. They ended up dropping charges and they didn't.

Flash Shelton
They didn't, you know, prosecute that homeowner, and they. They kind of did it just to send the message. But, um. But, yeah, I mean, homeowners need to kind of stay away and either do the legal process or, you know, do what I'm doing or, you know, contact squatter hunters and let us take care of them. I think it would be amazing if you did.

Graham Stephan
If you posted, like, on a regular basis, like, every two weeks on your channel, like those people who do the. I don't want to say the name the pea hunters. They meet up with underage people and they post the whole story from beginning to end of catching them with these chats, and then who the person is. The entire storyline, and then at the end, a very strong resolution. Right.

And it's just interesting seeing these people just show up and try to meet someone who's a minor and then just having this confrontation, just like, meeting in the middle of, like, a target somewhere. You know, I'm going to be putting up a lot more videos. I've been kind of holding off, you know, just dealing with the possible tv deal. But one of the things, like, the next couple videos that I'm putting up, they're more about, you know, I've given, you know, one guy that I show in, he's breaking in this house. I gave him 48 hours to move out, and if he didn't move out, I was going to expose him.

Flash Shelton
He broke into that house after attending a Beyonce Jay Z Oscar party. So he's in a suit, and, you know, he claims he's like, you know, claims to be, you know, longtime friend of Joan Collins, and he's got all these pictures with all these people. And I plan on exposing him as a squatter and hashtagging all of these people that he claimed are his friends. Wow. You know, and then I've got another one that her and her daughter, her son and daughter moved into an apartment.

Literally when the tenant moved out, it was one of those cases where they moved in before the maintenance crew got in. I've given, I've given her warning, so I'm going to expose, so I'm going to start doing some exposing videos, and then if I can get through the exposure and get, put the pressure on them, then I'll show the, you know, the solution in a video after that. What's the craziest squatter situation you've been in? Yeah, I mean, I think that crazy woman that I waited 2 hours in the dark and, you know, literally waited in the backyard dressed in black, waiting for her to come and catch her on camera. I was by myself.

I had, you know, I had a headlamp on my head that led bright light so she couldn't see who I was. She didn't know who I was or, or if I had people with me or not. That's a person that had already been. She had already. There were reports that she had literally stabbed someone in the back before, you know, she was, she was, she had crystal meth in her bra.

You know, she was, she was a crazy person. So the craziest thing for me is the unknown. You know, it's. I'm not putting myself in positions where typically, where it can go wrong. That day I did, though, I didn't know how it was gonna go.

I was by myself. It was on a whim. I didn't have any backup. You know, I just kind of went. I'm like, I've been trying to get ahold of this woman.

I've been trying to get her, get her on camera for weeks, and she kept avoiding me. So I figured, you know what? I'm gonna wait in this backyard as long as it takes. I was in the backyard for 2 hours. It's pitch black.

And she finally I see a cell phone or a camera light coming or a flashlight coming down the walkway, and, you know, I wait for her to put her leg up to climb into a window and pop out of the bushes. So that's kind of the craziest feeling situation I've ever been in. I don't know, it's just, it doesn't seem crazy when I've got guys behind me. It just doesn't seem crazy. I'm just trying to workshop this specific woman that's clearly abused this elderly woman.

Jack Selby
What other strategies could you, could you put, like, barbed wire, razor wire all around that window? Could you just put a bunch of people dressed up in scary outfits and scare when she walks through that alley every single night? Like, what tactics could you use to make her very uncomfortable? I can't do anything until the woman, the older woman is off the property. So I've already, like, I blocked her out everywhere.

Flash Shelton
I even boarded up her room, her window, and she got there and called the cops and had her boyfriend pull the, pull the boards off. And. But because there's a history of, of 911 responses to that residence, she's set precedence that she's there. So the only thing I will be able to do to get her out is literally moving in. And when she's got a bunch of guys there that she's dealing with and not an old lady, we'll get her out.

One of the reasons why this elderly woman, who's 88 years old, one of the reasons she needs to go is because they have it down that when law enforcement arrives on the property, the caregiver squatter says she's got dementia, she's got Alzheimer's. She forgets who I am. She calls the police. They have this written in there. Now, I've gone into law enforcement.

I've said, hey, that's not the case. I've got video of this woman. She's very lucid. She signed a lease for me, you know, and they had it literally in the notes that the woman has Alzheimer's. And they listen to the caregiver and leave.

And many times they don't even talk to the older lady. They basically just meet the caregiver in the street. She says everything's fine, and then they leave. So a situation with her there, I don't want to take a chance because as long as she's there, that's who law enforcement want to talk to. And I won't even, you know, as you see, in my first video, they went peacefully.

They took my offer. My offer was, I'm not going to expose your name and I'm not going to expose your face. So I didn't. So, you know, I tell them, look, my number one goal isn't, you know, the, the most entertaining video. My number one goal is get squatter out.

So if they will leave without no problems, I will make them an offer. I might say, hey, I'm going to do the video. I'm going to share the story, but I'll blur your, your face, and I will, I won't expose your name, but I want everyone to know about the situation. I actually had someone this past week. They reached out to me the beginning of the month, they reached out to me, and they're like, and it's this woman, supposed woman, Karen.

She emails me, she says, hey, is there an address I can send? I want to send you. I appreciate what you're doing, love everything you're doing, and I want to support what you're doing. And can I send you a contribution? And I'm like, okay.

I'm like, you know what? Just venmo. Or, you know, you can even do GoFundme, whatever. And she's like, oh, no. She's like, well, I don't, I don't have Venmo.

And she's like, I would rather just send you a check. She says, I can ach, you. Okay? So I didn't want to give my name. I didn't want to give, like, everything.

So I'm like, I reach out and I'm like, you know, ask a friend. I'm like, can, you know, can I give your name? And, you know, and I'll just have it sent to a PO box or whatever. So I go this past week, go to the Po box, find this priority mail envelope with $30.45 postage, and then I'm thinking anthrax. And I'm like, I'm like, standing downwind opening this thing, thinking, you know, there's going to be some powder in there or something.

Um, so I open it up, and it's a cashier's check for $100,000. No. Okay. So I'm like, oh, my God, that's so amazing. I'm like, that is just the feeling that somebody cares that much.

And I know that there's, like, all these people out there that have tons of money. They're old, and they're like, you know, what am I gonna do with this money? So I'm thinking there's always that chance that somebody's gonna wanna fund, you know, and. Cause I can get anywhere from five to 20 squatters out with that money. Yeah.

So I get it. I'm like, okay, you know, cool. I'm like, wow, that's amazing. So I don't email her back yet. I'm like, let me.

Let's put it through the bank. Let's see what happens. Right? So we go to the bank, and they scan it through the bank, and they're like, okay, you know, there's going to be a hold on, you know, until, like, the 23 April. And they're like, yeah, the routing number says it's, you know, drawn off of Wells Fargo.

And, sir, you know, cashier's check, it's, it's, you know, they're pretty much guaranteed by institution. And I'm like, okay. So I write this heartfelt, like, email, just like, you know, thanking, thanking this person. And then I get an email back and it says, um, says flash. Like, we've had some in house issues.

We've had some banking issues. And since I sent that, we, we've had to change institutions. And she says, please, like, don't deposit and destroy that check. And then she says, give me your bank account number and routing number, and we'll transfer you the same amount. And so I'm like, okay, well, wait a minute.

That just seems wrong. So, so I take a copy of it, and I go into Wells Fargo. They, they look it up, and they're like, yeah. They're like, we don't. This isn't from us.

And the bank account doesn't exist, and it's. We think it's fraud. So I'm like, what the hell? Like, why would somebody do this, right? So then I'm thinking, okay, well, they're doing it to get my bank, my routing number and whatever.

But if I was to give a routing number and bank account to somebody. I give it to a savings account that I got $10 in. You know what I mean? So, um. So I'm thinking, okay, do I just ignore it?

Whatever. So I thought, you know what, I'm going to play the game. So I email back. I said, well, if you, if you truly believe in what, what I'm doing and you want to contribute, then just send another check. They responded, and I'm thinking I'm expecting a response to be like, oh, yeah, just send me that routing number, or, you know, something like that.

But instead they respond and say, well, yeah, my gosh, we love what you're doing, and whatever. And she says, we're sending, we're going to send a check, a new check. This time it's going to come from. And she names a corporation, and the other one was done anonymously. And it was like, literally in private, and it was, no, no names.

And it was, you know, so then she names a corporation and says, this time the check is going to come from RHL or whatever, international incorporated or something, right? So I'm thinking, mind boggling, because I'm like, first of all, like, what is, what do they get out of it? And second of all is like, you know, it doesn't make sense. If they send me another check and they pay the postage, the same thing would happen. If you receive $100,000, you're right away your red flags are going to be up and you're going to be like, you know, let me get this checked out, right?

If they sent dollar 100 to get my banking info, red flags aren't as high, right? It's like, okay, a, you're like, oh, so you really meant to send 90? Okay, send me $10. You know, that's like, when you look up the cashier's check. Oh, yeah, scams.

Graham Stephan
I sent too much. They send me something back and it bounces. Yeah. By the time it clears, you're out your money. But I'm like, I've been trying to, I've been going through my head going, what could they possibly before besides messing with my head, you know, why would they respond back to me after I said, I'm not sending you my bank information?

Flash Shelton
So weird. So I'm not expecting anything of it. So this is still ongoing. This was like, literally this weekend that they said that they're going to issue another check. So when I get the other check, I'll go into the bank and do the same thing, and I won't deposit it this time.

This time I'll see where it's written off of. I don't understand what they get out of it because they're not getting my banking info. So I don't know. But what's funny is I had just done a zoom with, with someone, you know? And the sad part is, like, after I got that check, I'm thinking, you know, I met this woman that has a down syndrome child and she can't afford to do anything, and she has these squatters.

So I told her that I was. I'm going to still fulfill my obligation, but I'm going to do this one. I'm going to cover it, because I was going to just take from that in the beginning. For the eight months, the first eight months, I was doing everything for free. I was paying my guys out of my pocket.

It, because my heart was so into this. I felt so bad for these people. The Adam Fleischmann one, it's all out of my pocket. I did. It was free.

And, and I said, you know, I said, I've been like, hashtagging Elon Musk. I'm like. Cause I'm just looking for somebody to be like, just to give me their pocket change. And I use the hundred grand. I'm like, just somebody give me 100 grand so that I can just, like, start doing videos and showing that this contribution aided to this.

Graham Stephan
I bet that there's going to be some company out there that would sponsor your endeavors. You know, just imagine. Imagine that, you know, and they say, hey, we'll pay for the next five squad of removals. But you post your videos and mention, or publicly mention that, that we're helping remove these people, right? Or one wealthy donor who just says, you know what?

This system is broken. I want to help with this. I want to make the difference. Right? You know, so I had just said that on a zoom, and then, then I get this check and it was like, holy crap, you know, it's so.

Could be legit. You never know. I'm suspicious of it. But it's like, okay, so what? They're.

Flash Shelton
They're fraud and then they're. Yeah, but, oh, oops, we sent them the wrong one. It's weird. If it is a fraud to spend dollar 35 on postage. Yeah.

Graham Stephan
Unless they paid with, like, a stolen credit card or something like that and they're using someone else's info and someone's getting a charge on that. But I'm thinking to myself, if. If I'm doing that and maybe someone you removed and they say. And they're like, no, you know, I'm not going to send the banking info, but just send a check. I'm.

Flash Shelton
I'm cutting my losses, and I'm not. I'm not offering to send another check. They think I'm going to send the banking info after another check, and they don't know that I deposited it, so they don't know that I got it checked out. They don't know that I know what's. A crime at that point, right?

Graham Stephan
Writing a fake check or giving a fake cashier's check, it's all a crime. But, you know, scam artists, it's trying to find out who they are. I don't even know if it's a. If it's a woman, talk to him on the phone. I mean, it's all zoom.

Flash Shelton
It's all been email, you know, so. And they. So they don't know that I know that the other one was no good. So. Because her thing was, oh, you know, don't.

Don't deposit it, destroy it. We're going to send you another one. I've written cashier's checks before, plenty of them. It's very difficult to get them canceled. And when they are.

Graham Stephan
So, like, if there's actually money on that cashier's check and you give it to somebody and you cancel it, the cancellation, I think, is like, you have to wait like 90 days or 120 days of it going uncashed to be able to get your money back. Cause they wanna prevent you from, like, giving a cashier's check. You give me your car, you sign. A title, can't get it back. Exactly.

Flash Shelton
So it's only, they only, they only do it if you think that it was lost. Yes. Correct. So there'd be no way for them to cancel that unless they just forego the money. But what they're saying is that now people.

Cause it had all the different, like, security things look at it and you see the. It had all of that. So. But they said that they're making them. And, you know, and the reason why those are supposed to be secure is because it's not drawing off of a bank account, it's actually drawing off of the bank because they've had to take the money out of their account, put it into the bank's possession.

You know, but, you know, but that one, they said that unless it's some weird bank or whatever, they said that they don't show that that account even existed. So. Because the routing number was Wells Fargo. But she's like, she went back, like, she's like, went into the archives, like 20 years or something and said, no, that this account doesn't exist. TBT.

Graham Stephan
If we have an update, we'll put it in the description. How's that? If you figure it out before we post this, we'll put an update in the description. Yeah. Be nice.

Flash Shelton
It's a nice thought that if somebody cares that much about it and, you know, there's a lot of people that that doesn't matter to, you know, and they would be helping a lot of people. Thank you so much. We really appreciate it. We'll link to all of your information down below in the description, and if anyone wants to help you out, we'll link to just your information so people could reach out to you, figure something out. Awesome.

Cool. Thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Till next time.

See ya.

Confronting The Squatter Living In My Home (Actual Footage)

Primary Topic

Episode Summary

Main Takeaways

Episode Chapters

1: Introduction

2: Flash's Background

3: Legal Loopholes

4: Social Media Influence

5: Community Impact and Legal Reform

Actionable Advice

About This Episode

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Content Warnings:

Transcript