After allegedly tricking a judge to get the rights to an abandoned home that they stole and terrorizing their neighbors, a group of squatters in New York have demanded to be declared “heirs” to the property.
The squatter crisis in New York is emblematic of both the disastrous criminal justice policies and housing policies that have been enacted in Albany. Democrats shouldn't be making it easier for squatters to get away with their schemes. pic.twitter.com/zb5NRX6R9H
— Mike Lawler (@lawler4ny) April 6, 2024
For several months, 29-year-old Denton Gayle, 19-year-old Margaret Grover, their infant son and their pitbull have been squatting in a nearly $900,000 home on Long Island after forging a rental agreement with the deceased owner’s name on it, according to the New York Post.
Porsche-driving LI squatters ask to be made ‘heirs’ to zombie home https://t.co/kR1XtmoRtP pic.twitter.com/fu7hJasfdu
— New York Post (@nypost) April 6, 2024
The criminals, who have a Porsche parked in the driveway, were initially kicked out of the abandoned home following a 911 call from a concerned citizen — who told police that the squatters had their infant living in squalor, with no heat, electricity or working bathrooms.
A building inspector from North Hempstead then declared the home “unlivable.”
In a shocking turn of events, a Nassau County judge later allowed them to return to the home in December after glancing at forged documents from the criminals that stated they had a rental agreement with Edward Iacono — one of the family members who owned the home. However, Iacono and his family are all deceased.
The forged rental agreement asserted that Gayle and Grover had signed a lease with Iacono in July 2023 — but lawyers for the U.S. National Bank Association, who have been working to foreclose the home, pointed out that Iacono had died several years before he supposedly signed that document. However, it was too late — as Nassau Housing Court Judge Christopher Coschignano had not done any due diligence and simply believed the squatters’ claims as fact.
“A review of this ‘lease’ shows that it was purportedly executed by Mr. Iacono on or about June 1, 2023. However, Mr. Iacono has been deceased since 2016,” the bank’s lawyers wrote in a Tuesday letter after the couple demanded to become “heirs.”
“A copy of the death certificate is enclosed herewith,” they added. “As such, it is clear the proffered lease is fraudulent and is not valid.”
In March, Coschignano reversed his decision — ordering the criminals to exit the property and even going so far as to order the Nassau County Police Department to remove them from the abandoned home. Their eviction is still pending.
While every immediate family member of Iacono has been deceased since 2018, Grover and Gayle have drawn up legal papers demanded to be “added as heirs” to the $900,000 property despite having no relation to the family.
The couple have obtained a lawyer, who has desperately tried to refute the accusations against his clients.
“We’re not trying to play the system or asking for anything unfair, the thing they’re asking for here will allow us to be able to add our own voice and testimony to the record as the Courts try to determine what happened here and what the next steps are,” the lawyer, William Igbokwe, said.
Meanwhile, the squatters’ neighbors have demanded that local officials deal with the problem. A shocking 50 local residents attended a February town meeting demanding that officials force Gayle and Grover out of the abandoned property — explaining that the criminals had been displaying instability and violent tendencies.
“We truly believe that these people are going to be vindictive,” one resident told the New York Post, revealing that Gayle had charged down the street at him in anger.
According to the neighbor, Gayle “came running down the block screaming, ‘Answer me, talk to me.’ I did not want to confront him.”
“I’m scared to leave my family alone,” said another neighbor, Jerry Jacob.
Jacob went on to explain that at least eight residents of the neighborhood had recently purchased firearms in case they needed to protect themselves from the squatters or the “coincidental rash of break-ins in the area.”
“There’s no reasoning with these people,” another neighbor argued. “They cause a lot of chaos; they’re disrespectful to neighbors and not concerned about safety for whoever’s around.”
“The judge screwed up, and now we have to deal with the consequences,” another concerned resident told the New York Post. “The Town of North Hempstead has been totally useless.”
Meanwhile, rather than taking action against the growing squatter crisis, New York’s laws have led to one woman being arrested for changing the locks on her own home to keep a group of squatters out.
🚨BREAKING: A woman gets arrested for removing squatters out of her $1,000,000 house in Queens, NY.
Adel Andaloro inherited her family's home in Flushing, Queens after her parents passed away and was in the process of selling it when she noticed that someone illegally moved in.… pic.twitter.com/bMqitIXlrk
— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) March 19, 2024