After finally evicting a couple from their new home, the contractor-turned-occupiers texas landlord Said law enforcement made them feel like wrongdoers during the two-month ordeal.
Judith Matthews and Abram Mendez, who bought a San Antonio home to accommodate their growing family, said they are “relieved” that the contractor has finally cleaned out the last of their things. On Wednesday night, his family gathered to secure and move into their new home to make sure squatters – or other potential intruders – don’t get back inside.
Until victory in this week’s long battle, he said he felt “powerless.” legal system This took advantage of “homeowners… and the working class” over “entitled” occupiers – even, he said, when their safety was at risk.
“If I tried to defend my home, I would be arrested,” Matthews told Fox News Digital. “Your heart is going to jump out of your chest. You’re worried, you don’t sleep. What else is going to happen? How much the damage he’s going to do,
Navy veteran Abram Mendez and his wife, Judith Matthews, said they planned to be at their large home in San Antonio, Texas, over Easter. That timeline was significantly distorted due to his long battle with a contractor-turned-squatter. (Yudith Matthews)
Apart from “unloading some materials”, Matthews and Mendez told Fox News Digital that the handyman never completed the work he was hired to do.
The married couple said they have spent about $17,000 in damages, utilities and court fees, leaving the “last real dollars” in their account. The squatters allegedly destroyed new plumbing work in their garage, barbecued inside with propane tanks, sprayed mahogany cabinets with a bleach mixture, smoked and urinated inside the home and blocked their legal entrances and exits. Took out doors and molding throughout the house for convenience.
The couple said they fell in love with the seven-bedroom, three-bathroom home in a peaceful neighborhood and bought it in November. They couldn’t understand why anyone would “destroy” it unnecessarily.
Texas homeowners confront occupiers, say police won’t help
Matthews and Mendez said their squatter broke several doors and windows in the home so he could continue to enter and exit the property. (Yudith Matthews)
“Out of spite? For someone you don’t even know? Are you taking out the anger of the world on one person? (Is it) because they don’t have to pay? They just walk away and they’re responsible Are not,” Matthews said.
Reportedly, their squatter bought a blender to run all day during his unwanted stay and intentionally left his new freezer clogged, causing the meat and broken eggs inside to spoil. Matthews and Mendez were ordered to restore power and water to the home and pay a fine, claiming the trespasser and his female companion had stolen the water and power.
Even in obtaining a writ of possession – a formal document that a property owner puts on his door to notify a tenant or squatter that they must leave in 24 hours or be removed by force by the police – Costs an additional $300.
The squatters shone high-powered flashlights into the homeowners’ eyes, threatened them with bleach, and even brandished a knife during their repeated standoff. (Yudith Matthews)
“They only care about the bail money, they care about the bail money, they care about the fees — they were giving us the death penalty,” Mendez, a father of three, told Fox News Digital. “As long as the squatter is off the street and in someone’s home, he will generate revenue – attorney fees, other things that will stimulate the local economy. But it’s all done by the tax-paying homeowner who has worked hard , which has very little income or some equity where turning it around is the best case scenario.”
Had the contractor paid the fees and appealed the judge’s decision, his ordeal could have continued into this week, he said. But he said, “by a stroke of luck” he arrived late to Tuesday’s court hearing and narrowly missed going out the window.
The contractor, a man in his forties, who the couple said had arthritis, had asked to stay on a sofa inside the house. When they realized he had stored an alarming amount of property inside, they called the San Antonio Police Department.
Blue State occupiers served notice with ‘offensive’ law and order bill: ‘People are being killed’
The couple and their families supervised while the occupant eventually loaded their belongings into the moving van – including four guitars for which he had installed special mounts inside the house – and drove their car and motorcycle off the property. Went. (Yudith Matthews)
When police were first called to the property on February 29, he had not stayed in the home for the 30 days required for him to be considered a squatter under Texas property law, but the couple claims officers were able to verify his conflicting account. Made no effort to verify, or even check his identity.
“(The occupier) said, ‘No, I live here’ and the police immediately said, ‘You’re a resident, you have a right to be here,'” Mendez recalled. “The police came several times, we caught him red-handed, maybe we captured it on video, but the police go away and say it is a civil matter.”
Matthews and Mendez said they fell in love with the seven-bedroom, three-bathroom home. The quiet neighborhood, nearby stream and large yard made the property a great place to raise their children, ages 11, 10 and 8. (Yudith Matthews)
“He’s a cop,” Mendez said. “The police are entitling these people to rights they don’t deserve… They don’t care because they know the lieutenant is going to cover for them, they don’t want to write a report.”
The couple said they filed a complaint with the San Antonio Police Department after an encounter where an officer allegedly yelled at them, saying “he didn’t have time to deal with this.”
“You feel so frustrated, when the police treat you like you’re a criminal, you don’t even bother calling the police,” Matthews said.
Earlier, footage of the couple confronting their squatter as he entered the house through an open window was aired on “Fox & Friends.” after that encounterThe couple was banned from entering the house.
Pictured is a crude propane cooking setup used inside a Texas couple’s home. (Yudith Matthews)
From that point on, the legal process and surveying of property became a full-time job.
“My husband ran around the house, (we) took turns guarding the property,” Matthews said. “(The encroachers) took away from us family time, so many events, so many fun things we do with the kids on the weekends… It’s so unfair. Our kids, they get really stressed.”
After seven years of service as an intelligence officer in the Navy, many of them on active duty tours in Asia, Afghanistan and Iraq, Mendez is fortunate to be retired. He said, otherwise he would not have been able to manage this nightmare.
“He decided to keep breaking windows, breaking sheet rock, destroying the equipment we had there – who’s going to be responsible for that?” Matthews asked. (Yudith Matthews)
Matthews commented, “How come there are families where mom and dad have to work – what a nightmare.” “Imagine a family that is working 9-5 with zero support while dealing with this type of thing.”
In one of dozens of visits to the property by San Antonio police, the couple claimed the squatter attacked them with a knife, according to records provided by the department. Matthews and Mendez say that the arriving police “knocked the knife into a corner” and “told him he had a right to the weapon as a tenant in the house”.
Pictured are dishes left in the sink by squatters after they packed their belongings and moved away this week. (Yudith Matthews)
Matthews claims he shined high-wattage flashlights at her face and also threatened to spray her with bleach during one of their several confrontations.
“We are risking our lives fighting because we don’t get protection from the police, the government or anyone,” he told Fox News Digital. “We’ve saved up a lot of money, we’re in our forties, we’re focused on our home and now someone is stealing decades of hard-earned money from us for their laziness. That’s it, they’re lazy.”
“We’ve saved up a lot of money, we’re in our forties, we’ve been focusing on our home and now someone is stealing decades of hard-earned money from us for their laziness.”
After at least four court appearances and paying a $300 fee, the couple were finally able to post an eviction notice on the door of their home. (Yudith Matthews)
SAPD Officer Ricardo Guzman told Fox News Digital that law enforcement’s “hands are tied” in these situations.
He told Fox News Digital, “A big thing about these foreclosure things, the hardest part for us is the rights of the foreclosures. Once they move in and they have the property, even if it If there’s an abandoned building, it’s their property.” “There are laws that prevent us from taking their property and throwing them out. That’s where it becomes a civil matter, the owner has to go through the eviction process.”
The unwanted guest used boards and nails to permanently prop open several of the house’s windows, which he used to enter and exit. (Yudith Matthews)
He said, although the worst is over for the couple, they are still in the process of obtaining a restraining order against their encroachment and making an inventory of the damage and stolen items.
“The law didn’t work for us,” Mendez said. “Eventually it worked for us – but after a month’s bill, what a loss. (Now) it’s more elbow grease, more sanding, more painting – time eaten up by an illegal person who has nothing to lose. No because the police have made him entitled by saying, ‘You have the right to be there.’
Debris left by a squatter is depicted in the home of Judith Matthews and Abram Mendez. The couple said the contractor installed an extra door in their living room – and brought it with him when he moved out of the premises this week. (Yudith Matthews)
Click here to get the Fox News app
Fox News Digital could not reach the squatter for comment, or an attorney who has represented him in previous criminal court cases.
