Fellow lost his land to a squatter with a goat pen

The undeveloped beach community land had been in his family for two generations. But it wasn’t until Burton Banks tried to sell part of his Ocean View-area property that he made a troubling discovery.

A neighbor had a goat pen on it and had used other parts of about two-thirds of an acre of his property for decades. When he took her to court, she claimed squatter’s rights.

In February, Banks was forced to transfer the title after a Delaware Superior Court judge ruled that his neighbor, Melissa Schrock, had a claim to the property.

A real estate agent valued the land Burton Banks lost at $125,000, he said.