An Army officer returned from active duty to find a squatter with a lengthy criminal history living in her Georgia home — and couldn’t get him evicted despite going to police, she said.
Lt. Col. Dahlia Daure said the intruder, Vincent Simon, moved into her for-sale five-bedroom house in Ellenwood without permission and refused to leave after presenting a fake lease, “Fox News Tonight” reported Thursday.
“That was quite alarming to find out that someone else had moved into my home,” Daure said.
“To find out that this person moved into my home right after I got done renovating — it was very aggravating and I was angry.”
Simon — whose rap sheet includes guns, drugs and theft convictions — allegedly refused to open the door when she arrived home from duty in Chicago earlier this month, according to WSB-TV.
When Daure reported her hijacked home to cops, they initially told her their hands were tied because it was a “civil matter,” she told the station.
Frustrated, she tried serving the squatter with eviction papers last week, which he ignored, she said.
Daure eventually used an obscure landlord tenant law, under Georgia Title 44, to convince county cops to assist with the problem, she told Fox.
Simon was arrested Thursday after police found guns and drugs at the home — charges unrelated to the alleged home invasion, cops said.
“Mr. Simon had been accused of illegally occupying the residence, which had been for sale by the owner while she was deployed with the U.S. Army Reserves in Chicago, Illinois,” the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office said.
“The civil service process was accomplished without incident and Mr. Simon vacated the residence, but a weapon was found inside the home and drugs were found on the suspect before he left the premises,” the department said on its Facebook page.
The squatter ordeal led a potential home buyer to pull out of a deal as Daure’s real estate agent was making final preparations for the sale, Daure said.
“The buyer got spooked, too. I had to terminate that contract,” Daure said. “It’s kind of unjust to find out that someone can literally move into your home with a fictitious lease with a company that doesn’t exist.”
“My house was not on the market for rent. It was on the market for sale. I had a contract on the house,” she added.
Daure said cops only agreed to help after news outlets picked up her story and began asking questions.
“Had I not gone to the media, I would not have had the opportunity to get my home back today,” she said.
