She was enjoying her vacation on the Mexican coast, her home was out of sight, out of mind. But little did she know that 1,250 miles away, in Broke Arrow, a large group of people were getting ready to invade her home.
It was 3:00 a.m. when the noises began waking neighbors. These neighbors couldn’t help but notice that something was happening in front of Crystal’s garage door.
The group of people worked together as they broke the garage door open, preparing to use it as their main entry point to the house. They were acting like it was their property to enter and leave as they pleased.
Once they had gotten into the large house, they started making themselves comfortable. They had established that, for all intents and purposes, the beautiful house was no longer Crystal’s.
Labeling themselves the “new tenants” of the house, they decided that it was time to bring their pets into their new home. Soon enough five acts and a dog joined them.
They settled themselves into the bedrooms, throwing down their mattresses and packing their possessions into the cupboards. Now, they were finally ready to host their housewarming pool party…
But Crystal’s vacation was cut short when one of her neighbors called and informed her of the uninvited guests. She booked the first flight home and when she stepped through her front door, she was completely blindsided.
But they could not find any evidence of a break-in so they made no arrests. Instead, they issued a warning to the group for trespassing.
When she was asked what her property looked like when she came home from Cabo, she explained to News On 6, “It was awful. It looked like I was in some homeless shelter with mattresses everywhere.”
She added, “It was a shock. I didn’t understand how people could do that… I was so furious, but there was nothing I could do.”
Crystal was furious that no arrests were made for breaking and entering, and there was a reason for that. There was one significant detail that made the police officer’s job more difficult, however.
The so-called squatters said that they found the property available for rent on Craigslist. They were even able to show that they had a signed rental lease.
Upon closer inspection, the rental form showed that it listed the owner of the house as being one Steven Parker.
And after some investigation, Crystal found a box of blank lease forms in the garage – Had the squatters had faked their own rental agreement? According to one squatter, Cherie, she had been given a key.
She told Inside Edition, “It was the second or third day [when] we noticed our keys didn’t turn. I’m sorry. I had nothing to do with it.”
She said that when her key stopped working, she and her fellow residents then entered the house via the garage – apparently without being concerned about what had happened. “I am innocent in this,” Cherie said. “I didn’t scam anyone.”
Another member of the group, Dale Makins, admitted that the circumstances of their move-in might well have seemed suspicious. “I know it reeks, it looks bad on us, but with the lease, we got Shanghaied,” Dale told News On 6.
“She’s being nice enough to let us get our stuff. We’ll go to another place. We’re gonna research the house before we even move in.”
After Crystal, the rightful owner of the home returned she wanted to see justice done and the culprits punished, however. Crystal told News On 6, “It should be breaking and entering.
They broke into my home, they crawled underneath the garage, they have vandalized my home. They have brought roaches and bedbugs into the house and nothing’s being done.”
In order to protect the privacy of those depicted, some names, locations, and identifying characteristics have been changed and are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblances to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.
