A woman seized someone else's home with a fictitious lease agreement: neither the hostess nor the police can do anything

A squatter with a fake lease refuses to leave a Chicago, Illinois woman's house, and the cops can't do anything about it. The edition told in more detail New York Post.

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Danielle Cruz said she recently put up a three-bedroom apartment for sale, but when a contractor arrived to do the final renovation of the vacant house, it turned out that a stranger had moved in.

Cruz immediately called the police, but when the cops arrived, the intruder pulled out a fake lease and claimed she had already paid $8000 in rent. Now the cops can't kick her out.

“According to them, unfortunately they cannot prove that she invaded the house,” Cruz said, so now she needs to go to court and follow the official eviction process.

The landlord is stunned that law enforcement is considering this a civil matter due to tenant rights laws in Chicago's Cook County.

“I feel offended,” she said. This house belongs exclusively to me. It's scary if someone can just break into your house and kind of take it over."

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And Cruz is not alone in her trouble. More and more squatters have begun breaking into homes in the area in recent weeks, said local real estate attorney Moe Dadkha.

Crafty scammers can simply print out a fake lease and show it to cops, or change the locks and pretend to be the landlord, he says.

“If someone breaks into a property in the middle of the night, no one sees them enter, they have a lease. A police officer cannot identify a fake lease or a fake signature, so a court is needed, ”Dadkha explained.

The lawyer said the process could take 6 to 18 months.

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The Chicago Police Department said the woman living in the house dated an unidentified man who claimed to be the owner of the house.

According to police, he allegedly showed her the lease, took the money as security and gave her the keys to the house.

Cruz and her husband had recently moved out and were finishing renovations on the house they put up for sale for $175.

“We sincerely thought it was a joke,” Cruz admitted. “But when they came with the cops, they saw a young woman with all her things.”

“No one wants to find a stranger living there when they get home,” said neighbor Quintara Smith. “It gets scary because it can happen to anyone.”

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