JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville property owner’s call to police led to the arrest of five people found inside his vacant home Saturday night, according to Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office arrest reports.
How it started
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The owner first learned something was wrong Aug. 1, when a neighbor called to say multiple people were inside his property on Westmar Road. The owner was out of the city at the time and couldn’t respond when officers made an initial visit to the home.
Later that night, the owner spotted people still inside the residence and contacted police again around 11:50 p.m. He told officers no one should have been in the home — the last tenant had been formally evicted June 23, and he provided documentation to confirm it.
The owner believed the suspects entered through a broken window near the front door that led to the kitchen. He told officers he had previously seen broken glass in that area — and it was gone when he arrived.
Officers move in
According to arrest reports, officers responded just after midnight and began positioning themselves around the home. At least one officer spotted people inside a rear bedroom and observed one person attempt to escape through a side window.
Using a public address system mounted on a patrol vehicle — along with a police siren — officers instructed those inside to exit with their hands up. The owner handed over keys so officers could make entry after those inside did not comply.
When officers entered, they found all five occupants gathered in a central room near the front door. The K9 Unit and Drone Unit also responded to the scene.
The arrests
Five people were taken into custody, handcuffed, searched and placed in marked patrol vehicles. All were booked into the Duval County Jail in the early morning hours of Aug. 2.
The five faced a combination of the following charges:
- Trespass in a structure or conveyance (unoccupied), a second-degree misdemeanor
- Resisting an officer without violence, a first-degree misdemeanor
- Giving a false name or identification to law enforcement, a first-degree misdemeanor (one suspect)
One suspect was identified using a fingerprint scanner after allegedly providing a false name to officers. Another had alcohol noted as a factor in their arrest report.
News4JAX is not naming the suspects because they are facing misdemeanor charges.
Florida law
More than two years ago, the News4JAX I-TEAM exposed a loophole in a law that allowed two women to live rent-free in a home in the Hogan’s Creek neighborhood for weeks, while the property owner wasn’t allowed inside.
The defendant had claimed she was a victim of a rental scam, which was the same thing she had claimed at a nearby property where she had been recently evicted. They were allowed to stay in the house rent-free for weeks as the case moved through the civil court system.
After the investigation, the Florida state legislature unanimously passed a new state law that now allows law enforcement to immediately get involved in removing people living in a home without the owner’s permission. Under this law, officers may be called to help remove squatters if they unlawfully entered and remained on the property after the owner asked them to leave.
Now under the law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, police can remove people immediately from a property if they do not have a lease or refuse to leave.
Here are the conditions that have to be met before an officer can intervene:
- The requesting person is the property owner or authorized agent of the property owner.
- The real property that is being occupied includes a residential dwelling.
- An unauthorized person or persons have unlawfully entered and remain or continue to reside on the property owner’s property.
- The real property was not open to members of the public at the time the unauthorized person or persons entered.
- The property owner has directed the unauthorized person to leave the property.
- The unauthorized person or persons are not current or former tenants pursuant to a written or oral rental agreement authorized by the property owner.
- The unauthorized person or persons are not immediate family members of the property owner.
- There is no pending litigation related to the real property between the property owner and any known unauthorized person.