This story started all the way back in February. A homeowner in DeKalb County, Georgia had been leasing his house to a tenant who had just moved out. A few days later he stopped by to check the condition of the property but when he pulled into the driveway he found someone else had already moved in.

Tim Arko said just days after his tenants moved out of his East Lake rental home, he showed up to find someone had broken in.

He said as soon as he pulled into the driveway, someone pointed a gun at him.

“I just jumped the fence and ran. I didn’t know what else to do,” Arko said…

“I didn’t walk in on a family eating dinner. I walked in on weapons, a prostitute, a bunch of dogs in the back, my fence broken down,” Arko said.

After fleeing, Arko called 911 to report someone had broken into his house. Police arrived but then arrested him instead of the squatters:

“They told the police that I was a home invader and that it was their home. And so I ended up being arrested and detained,” Arko said…

Six months later, they are still living in Arko’s home.

Two people have died in the residence from overdoses during that time.

Yesterday WSB-TV reported an eviction order had finally been issued. Now Arko has to wait a few more weeks for the marshals to fit the eviction into their schedule. As you’ll see in this report, one of the squatters yelled at the reporter covering this story and claimed to have a lease (but of course he wouldn’t show it).

This same channel helped another homeowner get her home back just a few months ago.

“He’s not a tenant. He’s a squatter,” Lt. Colonel Dahlia Daure said…

Daure is full-time active-duty command staff with the U.S. Army Reserves and is stationed in Chicago.

She was renting out her metro Atlanta home, but after a $35,000 renovation, she put it up for sale.

“I got a cash offer. It was under contract,” she said.

That’s when Daure says Vincent Simon apparently moved in.

Vincent Simon had a long history of crimes but once he was in the house the police said they couldn’t do anything. Lt. Col. Daure was facing a 6-12 month eviction process. Luckily, the sheriff’s office caught the news report and took action.

Perhaps in this case the fact that Vincent Simon has a long record made this an easy call. Squatters who don’t have a record and who present fake lease paperwork aren’t as easy to remove. That’s what happened at a home in Texas last week:

“When they show up and immediately rip down the sign of the leasing company or owner company, it’s like, that raises a concern,” Jim Johnson, who, like most of his neighbors, is an original owner of his home for more than 20 years, said. “And the next move is a locksmith shows up, and that’s a concern.”

The Johnsons and their neighbors are tight-knit. They knew the management company of the rental home in the neighborhood and immediately called managers. Sure enough, their fears were confirmed. The management company says the new neighbors were not renters but squatters.

“They did have what looked like a very legitimate contract, and because of that, the police had to leave them alone,” Lark Johnson, who immediately contacted the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, said. “So now it’s going through the whole process of the court. We’re waiting for them to get their court date and be evicted.”

Neighbors began watching the house carefully and the squatters called police, complaining that one neighbor was harassing them by turning a surveillance camera in their direction. They also called the police on a local reporter when she knocked on the door. This one just happened so it’ll probably be sometime next year before this homeowner gets his (or her) house back.