Squatters: Get the F*** Out of My House (2026) s01e04 Episode Script
How to Hijack a House
[news reporter 1] Homeowners all across
the country have run into issues
with squatters.
[person 1] Squatters are ready
to make your house their home.
[person 2] Happening right under
our noses and nobody knew.
[narrator]
Squatters: Get the Fuck Out of my House.
[Kathy] I'm from Queens County,
New York. I've lived there all my life.
This all started
as a neighborhood problem.
It just grew and became a worldwide story.
I was just kind of shocked and puzzled.
We really didn't know what was going on.
-[news reporter 2] how it all started.
-[news reporter 3] Squatters.
-[dispatcher through radio] Trauma 1.
-[person 5] There is a break-in.
[Adele] I'm the homeowner,
and I'm being taken out in handcuffs.
Queens itself is mostly residential,
single-family houses.
It's more like a small-town feel.
You wouldn't think that
this was really part of New York City.
Adele and I have been friends
for 27 years. She's a tough little woman.
[chuckles] Nobody is going to
push her around, that's for sure.
Adele has lived in our particular
neighborhood most of her life.
[Adele] My parents,
they got married in the early '80s,
and we moved to Queens to the house
when I was around six.
I loved growing up in Queens. My parents
were friends with all the neighbors.
I'm an only child,
so it was a very big deal to us.
Kids were playing outside,
we had block parties.
The bus was a couple of blocks away that
would take you to the train to the city,
so I just felt like we were
right in the middle of everything.
It was a big accomplishment for my parents
that they bought that house.
Throughout my childhood, my mother would
save her money to do certain improvements
until eventually it was exactly
how she wanted it. It was very ornate.
My mother had a lot of gold and statues
and big lamps
and a lot of Italian furnishings.
I had my daughter at a very young age,
and she lived most of her life
in that house with my parents.
And my son got to grow up
his early years there,
so there's a lot of good memories
in that house.
All of a sudden, my father passed away.
And my mother,
she was diagnosed with dementia,
so we spent the next seven years
taking care of her in that house.
I was working three jobs
to take care of the mortgage on my own,
but I wasn't making enough.
So it came to a point where we realized
we were gonna have to sell the home.
It was very hard for me to come to terms
with the fact that we had to sell.
I love my house. All my memories
of my parents were in that house.
It meant everything to us.
We actually moved out of the home
in September of 2019,
but I went back to Queens
every couple weeks.
I checked the house, collected the mail,
checked everything was okay.
Shortly after we moved, I had gone
to get my nails done in Queens.
My son was with me,
and we decided to drive by the house.
And as we were driving by,
my son actually pointed out
that the door had been changed.
I took a picture. I contacted the Realtor
that we were working with
to sell the house,
and I asked her
if that was any of her doing.
She said absolutely not.
I mean, what was going on?
I dropped my son off at home,
and later on in the evening, I went back.
My key to the front didn't work anymore.
It was a completely different lock.
I contacted my neighbors to let them know
what was going on.
We knew she was in the process
of moving to Long Island,
and she called me
and she said to come over.
And sure enough
This is a different door.
Like, what-what is going on?
[siren wailing]
Everyone suggested I contact the police.
[Adele]
-[police officer 1]
-[Adele]
[police officer 1]
[Adele] Something bigger was going on.
[police officer 1] Police department.
Police department. Anyone inside?
-[knocking on door]
-[radio chatter]
[Kathy] That night,
they sent four police officers.
[radio chatter]
-[police officer 1]
-Yeah.
And we stood outside in the freezing cold.
[radio chatter]
And the police officers just kind of
looked at the house with us.
[police officer 2]
[police officer 1]
-[knocks on door]
-[radio chatter]
There were lights on.
The cellar lights were on,
the first floor lights were on,
the second floor lights were on.
There were obviously people inside.
But nobody would answer the door.
These people that don't even belong there
are inside the house,
they're nice and warm,
and we're standing outside on the sidewalk
in front of the house that she owns,
and we're freezing cold.
It was totally frustrating.
[radio chatter]
-Hello.
-[police officer 1]
[police officer 2]
[squatter]
[police officer 2]
[squatter]
[police officer 2]
[squatter] Uh
[police officer 2]
[squatter]
[police officer 2]
-[squatter]
-[police officer 2]
[Adele] They were able to take two people
out of the home that night.
I had never seen any of these people
before in my life.
I told them not to come back,
that I was the owner.
[police officer 1]
[police chattering]
The local police, they didn't feel
it was a police matter.
[police officer 2]
[Adele] No. no. Right. They thought
[police officer 2]
-[Adele] Right.
-[police officer 2]
[Adele] So I'll wait here
and this guy comes back
[police officer 2]
They felt that their hands were tied.
[Adele] They suggested that we do
whatever we needed to do
to protect the house that night
and then follow up with either a new alarm
system or cameras or things like that.
[Kathy] And the police officers could do
nothing. We couldn't do anything,
and, uh, basically after two hours
of standing outside the house,
we all had to leave.
[distorted dialogue]
[Adele]
[police officer 2]
-[Adele]
-[police officer 2]
[Adele]
We had never had a break-in as long as
I-I lived there my entire life.
It was cold. It was winter,
so I thought maybe people broke in,
and that would be the end of it.
I honestly thought, we called the police,
we boarded up the house that night,
and that they wouldn't come back.
But I couldn't believe
what was gonna happen to us.
[police officer 3]
NYPD, get against the wall!
[dispatcher] New York City 911.
What's the emergency?
[Adele] I own the home,
and I came to check on my house,
and there's people there.
[dispatcher on radio] 2146, acknowledge.
[Adele] Shortly after the first night
I went there,
we discovered someone is back
in my house again.
[Adele] This person, Brian Rodriguez,
showed up at my house.
He informed me and the police
that he had a lease to the house
and that these were his tenants.
[Brian]
He referred to it as his home.
[officer] Okay.
This man was squatting in my home,
trying to steal my home.
And it is what it is.
[Adele] The police, they contacted
their legal department.
They were told this is
a landlord-tenant situation.
They cannot get involved,
so they weren't gonna do anything.
[police officer 4]
I was, like, angry.
That I'm like, "Absolutely not. No."
-[police officer 4] Yeah, you
-I'm not gonna stop.
I never met him.
I never agreed to let him in my home.
I never agreed to any of this, and just
seeing the officers be like, "Yeah, ma'am,
you have to go."
They told me several times I had to go.
[police officer 3] All right.
-[police officer 4] Thanks for your help.
-[Brian] Sure.
[police officer 4] So, um
I'm gonna give all the information
to my lawyer.
[police officer 4] Yeah.
My neighbors, they were all on alert
to call me or text me
if they saw any activity going on
in the house.
[911 dispatcher 1] New York City 911,
what's the emergency?
One of my neighbors called me and said
that someone had broken the side door.
[Adele]
Called the police to meet me there.
[police officer 6]
What's behind this door?
[Adele] To the right is the kitchen. And
then the stairs go down into the basement.
[police officer 6] And there's somebody
living in the basement?
[Adele] Yes.
[police officer 6]
[Adele]
They all knew to say
that they had been there over 30 days,
because once these people are in
your house for 30 days, they have rights.
[Adele]
[police officer 6]
[Adele] Time and time again,
I was told that the police,
they were not gonna get involved.
Every time I called, they were saying,
"Oh, yeah, she's calling again,
she's calling again."
[Kathy]
[police officer 6]
It did come to a point where the police
did not meet me there anymore.
So I went to the councilwoman's office,
the NYPD, Queens DA's office,
marshal's office, and anyone that I could
think of that could possibly help me.
Everyone told me no.
Everyone said
the only course of action that I had
was to take this person to court to prove
that he didn't belong in my house.
The clock was ticking. I couldn't just let
time keep passing and not do anything.
It was Adele's idea
to get Dan to do the story.
Our entire investigation of this issue
started out with a single tip
from a viewer like you.
I did a story on squatters, and the
promotions was airing for that story,
and we received an email
from Adele's family saying,
"If you think that story's bad,
you should come and check out our story."
And I thought, "Well, let's just interview
Adele outside of her home.
Probably take about 15 minutes."
These were my kids' old bedrooms
that are being used by random people
with mattresses on the floor.
What's it like being here knowing
you can't go inside of your own home?
It's enraging. It really is. It really is.
The interview went great.
I have the pictures, the footage.
[sniffles]
I can send you what the house
used to look like, what it looks like now.
-And we have the deed.
-You have the deed.
Oh, this woman's probably
trying to get in my home.
And that's when one of the people
renting out a room,
one of the squatters
showed up to her home.
[Krauth] Hey, ma'am, do you
Are you staying here?
[squatter 2 speaking Spanish]
Hola, señora, ¿habla español?
[squatter 2] I don't speak English. Stop.
[speaks indistinctly]
What-What are you doing in the house?
Are you renting this house?
-I'm not renting this.
-Why are you here?
Is this
[Adele] Because you're breaking in,
that's why.
[Krauth] What M-Ma'am?
Why are you here in the house?
-Don't bother me.
-[Krauth] Are you renting a room here?
[squatter 2] I'm not rent nothing.
When she walked away,
she left the front door open.
[Adele] It's open?
Let's go in the house. It's open.
-[Krauth] Careful.
-[speaks indistinctly]
[Adele] Uh, let me go in. Don't go in.
And that's when Adele said,
"I have the property deed.
This is my house. I'm going inside."
[Adele sniffles]
[Adele] Oh, he had an alarm system?
-[daughter] Yeah, it sounded like it.
-[Krauth] Brett, I don't know.
Okay.
I had no idea what we were
stepping into at this point.
I'm in the house, and there's no one here.
I wanna check the back bedrooms.
My photographer is shooting everything
that's happening inside the house.
[Cohen] Adele.
-[Adele] Yeah?
-[Cohen] You have to be very careful.
Okay.
[Cohen] I'm thinking about Adele's safety.
We just recorded what was going on.
Just keep rolling no matter what.
It's what we're there to do.
[Adele] Yeah, more people's belongings
in the bedroom.
[knocking on door]
Who are you, sir? Get out of my house.
Once Adele got into the house,
she found squatters in the house.
Call Brian,
let him know I'm here with the news.
She was adamant that day that these
squatters were getting out of her home
and she was getting her home back.
He's in the house.
[Krauth] Adele knew the law.
You have to take the squatter to court
while you stand on the outside,
you have to pay attorney fees
and fight to get the squatter out.
And she said, "You know what, not today."
[Adele]
I contacted a locksmith immediately,
explained the situation, and asked him
to come out and change the locks.
I'm here now. I'm inside the house.
No one else but myself and my daughter
and my locksmith are here,
and we're going to do what we have to do.
In New York City, if someone
stays at a property for more than 30 days,
they have certain tenants' rights.
If you change the locks,
shut off the utilities,
or remove the belongings of someone
who claims to be a tenant,
you can be arrested
and you can be taken to court.
I didn't care at that point.
[drill whirring]
And I remember I'd get real close to
the door to get a shot of the door handle,
so I'm like, I don't know,
maybe like six or seven inches away.
-And boom.
-[loud thud]
[Cohen] Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait.
You can't do that. There are people here.
-[Brian] I live here, police is
-[Adele] Out. No, you don't.
[Brian] Police is on the way.
And that's when
the squatter standoff started.
-[Brian] This is not your house.
-[Adele] Get out of my house.
[sniffles] We were going to fight.
-[Brian] Please don't touch me.
-[Adele] Get out of my house.
You're in my house. Call the police again.
Call the police.
[sirens wailing]
[Cohen] Whoa, whoa. Wait.
You can't do that. People are here.
[Brian]
-Stop.
-[Adele] Out. No, you don't.
[Brian]
-[Adele] Please get out of my house.
-[Brian] This is not your house.
No, I don't wanna touch you.
[Krauth] This is the first time
I meet Brian Rodriguez,
pushing through her front door
just screaming at Adele.
I want you Nobody was sold the house.
Get out of my house.
Get out of my house.
[stammers] That's when I saw red.
[Brian]
[Adele] You're the owner?
Show them your lease.
I'm shocked and I'm also a little worried.
[Adele]
[all speaking indistinctly]
[Krauth] He busted in that door
on a mission. He was pissed.
[Brian]
I don't know what this guy's going to do.
Brian has the audacity
to call the police on her.
-[siren wailing]
-[horn blaring]
The police show up.
[Adele] You broke through the front door.
-[Adele]
-[Brian]
-[Adele]
-[Brian]
This guy just literally
broke down my door.
-You don't even have a legal lease.
-[Brian] Just walk away.
-You don't have anything.
-Look, hey.
[Adele] He literally just broke through
the front door.
[police officer] Let me figure out
what's going on here.
I don't know you. I don't know him.
I don't know nobody in this house.
-[police officer] Relax.
-No, no, no.
-This is my fucking house.
-[police officer] Okay!
If it's your house, it's your house.
All right, we'll figure this out.
[Krauth] We're gonna find this out.
And Brian was able to convince the NYPD
that that was his house
and that he had a legal right to be there
even though he had no proof.
All right?
It shows you that the louder you scream
and the more strongly you speak,
the more people believe you.
-All right, all right, all right.
-[Brian] That is not my issue.
-I'm not gonna talk to him anymore.
-Don't entertain him.
Okay, you're right, I won't.
I'm sorry, Officer.
And here's Adele
with a property deed in her hand.
And he was allowed to stay.
-I'm being arrested.
-[Cohen] For what?
[Brian]
For being in an illegal house, man.
For being in my for being in my own home.
And she was taken away in handcuffs.
[Cohen] Shit. [speaks indistinctly]
[police radio chatter]
[Adele] They read me my rights.
They put me in handcuffs.
They walked me to the car
and they took me down to the precinct.
Me being driven away in a police car
and seeing Brian in the doorway
of my house was [stammers] unreal.
[Krauth] So how does this all end then?
W-When do you leave?
Hey, the way it ends is-is
[Adele] I was really disappointed
that that's how it was ending.
But then the story aired.
[Krauth] For years, squatters
took advantage of a legal loophole
that allowed them to live in homes
and apartments that didn't belong to them.
[Cohen] Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait.
They have broken in
and they are stealing my home.
You shouldn't be trying to steal my house.
Well, now the story's out.
Hopefully someone would help us.
[Krauth] In New York, you can't change
the locks, cut off the utilities,
or remove someone's belongings,
or the homeowner can be arrested.
[Adele] People seeing
a homeowner get arrested
for trying to protect her own home
is really what got everyone angry,
and I think that that that made
the story just spread everywhere.
The images have been seen and shared
by people around the world.
Those images went viral and
people couldn't not pay attention to it.
-This Queens-based homeowner
-You guys gotta see this video.
-was arrested for changing the locks on
-This is out of New York.
-a house she inherited from her parents.
-Y'all, this is wild.
It had gone on all these different sites
and on Instagram
and sites that I wasn't even on.
"I'm really fearful that these people are
going to get away with stealing my home."
It was out there and now
I just wanted to see it get handled.
Our original seven-year site investigation
caught the attention
of the Queens district attorney
who launched her own investigation
The Queens district attorney
says she watched our story
and decided to drop Adele's citations
to show up to court in New York City
and criminally charge Brian.
Prosecutors charged the accused squatter,
Brian Rodriguez,
with burglary, grand larceny
and possession of stolen property.
[Adele] I wanted him
to be held responsible
for all these months
of what he put us through.
It was assault in my eyes.
I got a contact from someone
at the Queens DA's office
that said we're gonna get them out
by the end of the week.
[police radio chatter]
I met them at my house.
[police officer] Yeah we're going in.
Open the door.
And they got everybody out.
NYPD! Get near the front door!
I don't know if vindicated
is the right word, but I felt heard.
These squatters
are being taken out in cuffs.
Someone is admitting
that you're in the wrong here.
This felt like a big win.
She was finally getting her home back.
-[Cohen] There you go.
-Here we go. [sighs]
[Cohen] All right, we're in.
She was ending one chapter,
but as she opened the door
She found that there were
a lot of damages to her home.
[Adele] The house
was absolutely destroyed.
Every single doorknob
in every single bedroom had been broken,
as if somebody locked it
and somebody kicked it in.
There was foot marks on all the doors.
They had stolen my mother's chandeliers
and replaced them with,
you know, $5 light fixtures.
They had completely trashed my house.
[Krauth] Brian ended up
taking a plea agreement,
pleading guilty
to falsely reporting an incident,
basically a false police report,
which is a Class E felony.
The felony burglary, grand larceny,
and stolen property charges were dropped.
He was sentenced to two years in prison
and five years
of supervised release after that.
[governor] The bill is passed.
[Krauth] In record time,
state lawmakers voted to change state law
and they actually put it in writing
that tenants do not include squatters.
This basically makes it easier for police
to remove squatters when they show up
and arrest them as a trespasser
and not send them to housing court,
where it takes years
for something to happen.
[Adele] Had I gone quietly,
had I gone to landlord-tenant court,
I think that
he would still be living in my house.
I think that I would still be in court.
I think this would be something that
would cost me a lot of money and time,
and I don't really think I would have
gotten the result that I actually did get.
Nobody could have planned how this
particular situation was gonna unfold.
I was unaware how often this was happening
and how many different places
it was happening.
So I think that people need to know
that this could happen to them.
[Brian] This is my fucking house!
the country have run into issues
with squatters.
[person 1] Squatters are ready
to make your house their home.
[person 2] Happening right under
our noses and nobody knew.
[narrator]
Squatters: Get the Fuck Out of my House.
[Kathy] I'm from Queens County,
New York. I've lived there all my life.
This all started
as a neighborhood problem.
It just grew and became a worldwide story.
I was just kind of shocked and puzzled.
We really didn't know what was going on.
-[news reporter 2] how it all started.
-[news reporter 3] Squatters.
-[dispatcher through radio] Trauma 1.
-[person 5] There is a break-in.
[Adele] I'm the homeowner,
and I'm being taken out in handcuffs.
Queens itself is mostly residential,
single-family houses.
It's more like a small-town feel.
You wouldn't think that
this was really part of New York City.
Adele and I have been friends
for 27 years. She's a tough little woman.
[chuckles] Nobody is going to
push her around, that's for sure.
Adele has lived in our particular
neighborhood most of her life.
[Adele] My parents,
they got married in the early '80s,
and we moved to Queens to the house
when I was around six.
I loved growing up in Queens. My parents
were friends with all the neighbors.
I'm an only child,
so it was a very big deal to us.
Kids were playing outside,
we had block parties.
The bus was a couple of blocks away that
would take you to the train to the city,
so I just felt like we were
right in the middle of everything.
It was a big accomplishment for my parents
that they bought that house.
Throughout my childhood, my mother would
save her money to do certain improvements
until eventually it was exactly
how she wanted it. It was very ornate.
My mother had a lot of gold and statues
and big lamps
and a lot of Italian furnishings.
I had my daughter at a very young age,
and she lived most of her life
in that house with my parents.
And my son got to grow up
his early years there,
so there's a lot of good memories
in that house.
All of a sudden, my father passed away.
And my mother,
she was diagnosed with dementia,
so we spent the next seven years
taking care of her in that house.
I was working three jobs
to take care of the mortgage on my own,
but I wasn't making enough.
So it came to a point where we realized
we were gonna have to sell the home.
It was very hard for me to come to terms
with the fact that we had to sell.
I love my house. All my memories
of my parents were in that house.
It meant everything to us.
We actually moved out of the home
in September of 2019,
but I went back to Queens
every couple weeks.
I checked the house, collected the mail,
checked everything was okay.
Shortly after we moved, I had gone
to get my nails done in Queens.
My son was with me,
and we decided to drive by the house.
And as we were driving by,
my son actually pointed out
that the door had been changed.
I took a picture. I contacted the Realtor
that we were working with
to sell the house,
and I asked her
if that was any of her doing.
She said absolutely not.
I mean, what was going on?
I dropped my son off at home,
and later on in the evening, I went back.
My key to the front didn't work anymore.
It was a completely different lock.
I contacted my neighbors to let them know
what was going on.
We knew she was in the process
of moving to Long Island,
and she called me
and she said to come over.
And sure enough
This is a different door.
Like, what-what is going on?
[siren wailing]
Everyone suggested I contact the police.
[Adele]
-[police officer 1]
-[Adele]
[police officer 1]
[Adele] Something bigger was going on.
[police officer 1] Police department.
Police department. Anyone inside?
-[knocking on door]
-[radio chatter]
[Kathy] That night,
they sent four police officers.
[radio chatter]
-[police officer 1]
-Yeah.
And we stood outside in the freezing cold.
[radio chatter]
And the police officers just kind of
looked at the house with us.
[police officer 2]
[police officer 1]
-[knocks on door]
-[radio chatter]
There were lights on.
The cellar lights were on,
the first floor lights were on,
the second floor lights were on.
There were obviously people inside.
But nobody would answer the door.
These people that don't even belong there
are inside the house,
they're nice and warm,
and we're standing outside on the sidewalk
in front of the house that she owns,
and we're freezing cold.
It was totally frustrating.
[radio chatter]
-Hello.
-[police officer 1]
[police officer 2]
[squatter]
[police officer 2]
[squatter]
[police officer 2]
[squatter] Uh
[police officer 2]
[squatter]
[police officer 2]
-[squatter]
-[police officer 2]
[Adele] They were able to take two people
out of the home that night.
I had never seen any of these people
before in my life.
I told them not to come back,
that I was the owner.
[police officer 1]
[police chattering]
The local police, they didn't feel
it was a police matter.
[police officer 2]
[Adele] No. no. Right. They thought
[police officer 2]
-[Adele] Right.
-[police officer 2]
[Adele] So I'll wait here
and this guy comes back
[police officer 2]
They felt that their hands were tied.
[Adele] They suggested that we do
whatever we needed to do
to protect the house that night
and then follow up with either a new alarm
system or cameras or things like that.
[Kathy] And the police officers could do
nothing. We couldn't do anything,
and, uh, basically after two hours
of standing outside the house,
we all had to leave.
[distorted dialogue]
[Adele]
[police officer 2]
-[Adele]
-[police officer 2]
[Adele]
We had never had a break-in as long as
I-I lived there my entire life.
It was cold. It was winter,
so I thought maybe people broke in,
and that would be the end of it.
I honestly thought, we called the police,
we boarded up the house that night,
and that they wouldn't come back.
But I couldn't believe
what was gonna happen to us.
[police officer 3]
NYPD, get against the wall!
[dispatcher] New York City 911.
What's the emergency?
[Adele] I own the home,
and I came to check on my house,
and there's people there.
[dispatcher on radio] 2146, acknowledge.
[Adele] Shortly after the first night
I went there,
we discovered someone is back
in my house again.
[Adele] This person, Brian Rodriguez,
showed up at my house.
He informed me and the police
that he had a lease to the house
and that these were his tenants.
[Brian]
He referred to it as his home.
[officer] Okay.
This man was squatting in my home,
trying to steal my home.
And it is what it is.
[Adele] The police, they contacted
their legal department.
They were told this is
a landlord-tenant situation.
They cannot get involved,
so they weren't gonna do anything.
[police officer 4]
I was, like, angry.
That I'm like, "Absolutely not. No."
-[police officer 4] Yeah, you
-I'm not gonna stop.
I never met him.
I never agreed to let him in my home.
I never agreed to any of this, and just
seeing the officers be like, "Yeah, ma'am,
you have to go."
They told me several times I had to go.
[police officer 3] All right.
-[police officer 4] Thanks for your help.
-[Brian] Sure.
[police officer 4] So, um
I'm gonna give all the information
to my lawyer.
[police officer 4] Yeah.
My neighbors, they were all on alert
to call me or text me
if they saw any activity going on
in the house.
[911 dispatcher 1] New York City 911,
what's the emergency?
One of my neighbors called me and said
that someone had broken the side door.
[Adele]
Called the police to meet me there.
[police officer 6]
What's behind this door?
[Adele] To the right is the kitchen. And
then the stairs go down into the basement.
[police officer 6] And there's somebody
living in the basement?
[Adele] Yes.
[police officer 6]
[Adele]
They all knew to say
that they had been there over 30 days,
because once these people are in
your house for 30 days, they have rights.
[Adele]
[police officer 6]
[Adele] Time and time again,
I was told that the police,
they were not gonna get involved.
Every time I called, they were saying,
"Oh, yeah, she's calling again,
she's calling again."
[Kathy]
[police officer 6]
It did come to a point where the police
did not meet me there anymore.
So I went to the councilwoman's office,
the NYPD, Queens DA's office,
marshal's office, and anyone that I could
think of that could possibly help me.
Everyone told me no.
Everyone said
the only course of action that I had
was to take this person to court to prove
that he didn't belong in my house.
The clock was ticking. I couldn't just let
time keep passing and not do anything.
It was Adele's idea
to get Dan to do the story.
Our entire investigation of this issue
started out with a single tip
from a viewer like you.
I did a story on squatters, and the
promotions was airing for that story,
and we received an email
from Adele's family saying,
"If you think that story's bad,
you should come and check out our story."
And I thought, "Well, let's just interview
Adele outside of her home.
Probably take about 15 minutes."
These were my kids' old bedrooms
that are being used by random people
with mattresses on the floor.
What's it like being here knowing
you can't go inside of your own home?
It's enraging. It really is. It really is.
The interview went great.
I have the pictures, the footage.
[sniffles]
I can send you what the house
used to look like, what it looks like now.
-And we have the deed.
-You have the deed.
Oh, this woman's probably
trying to get in my home.
And that's when one of the people
renting out a room,
one of the squatters
showed up to her home.
[Krauth] Hey, ma'am, do you
Are you staying here?
[squatter 2 speaking Spanish]
Hola, señora, ¿habla español?
[squatter 2] I don't speak English. Stop.
[speaks indistinctly]
What-What are you doing in the house?
Are you renting this house?
-I'm not renting this.
-Why are you here?
Is this
[Adele] Because you're breaking in,
that's why.
[Krauth] What M-Ma'am?
Why are you here in the house?
-Don't bother me.
-[Krauth] Are you renting a room here?
[squatter 2] I'm not rent nothing.
When she walked away,
she left the front door open.
[Adele] It's open?
Let's go in the house. It's open.
-[Krauth] Careful.
-[speaks indistinctly]
[Adele] Uh, let me go in. Don't go in.
And that's when Adele said,
"I have the property deed.
This is my house. I'm going inside."
[Adele sniffles]
[Adele] Oh, he had an alarm system?
-[daughter] Yeah, it sounded like it.
-[Krauth] Brett, I don't know.
Okay.
I had no idea what we were
stepping into at this point.
I'm in the house, and there's no one here.
I wanna check the back bedrooms.
My photographer is shooting everything
that's happening inside the house.
[Cohen] Adele.
-[Adele] Yeah?
-[Cohen] You have to be very careful.
Okay.
[Cohen] I'm thinking about Adele's safety.
We just recorded what was going on.
Just keep rolling no matter what.
It's what we're there to do.
[Adele] Yeah, more people's belongings
in the bedroom.
[knocking on door]
Who are you, sir? Get out of my house.
Once Adele got into the house,
she found squatters in the house.
Call Brian,
let him know I'm here with the news.
She was adamant that day that these
squatters were getting out of her home
and she was getting her home back.
He's in the house.
[Krauth] Adele knew the law.
You have to take the squatter to court
while you stand on the outside,
you have to pay attorney fees
and fight to get the squatter out.
And she said, "You know what, not today."
[Adele]
I contacted a locksmith immediately,
explained the situation, and asked him
to come out and change the locks.
I'm here now. I'm inside the house.
No one else but myself and my daughter
and my locksmith are here,
and we're going to do what we have to do.
In New York City, if someone
stays at a property for more than 30 days,
they have certain tenants' rights.
If you change the locks,
shut off the utilities,
or remove the belongings of someone
who claims to be a tenant,
you can be arrested
and you can be taken to court.
I didn't care at that point.
[drill whirring]
And I remember I'd get real close to
the door to get a shot of the door handle,
so I'm like, I don't know,
maybe like six or seven inches away.
-And boom.
-[loud thud]
[Cohen] Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait.
You can't do that. There are people here.
-[Brian] I live here, police is
-[Adele] Out. No, you don't.
[Brian] Police is on the way.
And that's when
the squatter standoff started.
-[Brian] This is not your house.
-[Adele] Get out of my house.
[sniffles] We were going to fight.
-[Brian] Please don't touch me.
-[Adele] Get out of my house.
You're in my house. Call the police again.
Call the police.
[sirens wailing]
[Cohen] Whoa, whoa. Wait.
You can't do that. People are here.
[Brian]
-Stop.
-[Adele] Out. No, you don't.
[Brian]
-[Adele] Please get out of my house.
-[Brian] This is not your house.
No, I don't wanna touch you.
[Krauth] This is the first time
I meet Brian Rodriguez,
pushing through her front door
just screaming at Adele.
I want you Nobody was sold the house.
Get out of my house.
Get out of my house.
[stammers] That's when I saw red.
[Brian]
[Adele] You're the owner?
Show them your lease.
I'm shocked and I'm also a little worried.
[Adele]
[all speaking indistinctly]
[Krauth] He busted in that door
on a mission. He was pissed.
[Brian]
I don't know what this guy's going to do.
Brian has the audacity
to call the police on her.
-[siren wailing]
-[horn blaring]
The police show up.
[Adele] You broke through the front door.
-[Adele]
-[Brian]
-[Adele]
-[Brian]
This guy just literally
broke down my door.
-You don't even have a legal lease.
-[Brian] Just walk away.
-You don't have anything.
-Look, hey.
[Adele] He literally just broke through
the front door.
[police officer] Let me figure out
what's going on here.
I don't know you. I don't know him.
I don't know nobody in this house.
-[police officer] Relax.
-No, no, no.
-This is my fucking house.
-[police officer] Okay!
If it's your house, it's your house.
All right, we'll figure this out.
[Krauth] We're gonna find this out.
And Brian was able to convince the NYPD
that that was his house
and that he had a legal right to be there
even though he had no proof.
All right?
It shows you that the louder you scream
and the more strongly you speak,
the more people believe you.
-All right, all right, all right.
-[Brian] That is not my issue.
-I'm not gonna talk to him anymore.
-Don't entertain him.
Okay, you're right, I won't.
I'm sorry, Officer.
And here's Adele
with a property deed in her hand.
And he was allowed to stay.
-I'm being arrested.
-[Cohen] For what?
[Brian]
For being in an illegal house, man.
For being in my for being in my own home.
And she was taken away in handcuffs.
[Cohen] Shit. [speaks indistinctly]
[police radio chatter]
[Adele] They read me my rights.
They put me in handcuffs.
They walked me to the car
and they took me down to the precinct.
Me being driven away in a police car
and seeing Brian in the doorway
of my house was [stammers] unreal.
[Krauth] So how does this all end then?
W-When do you leave?
Hey, the way it ends is-is
[Adele] I was really disappointed
that that's how it was ending.
But then the story aired.
[Krauth] For years, squatters
took advantage of a legal loophole
that allowed them to live in homes
and apartments that didn't belong to them.
[Cohen] Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait.
They have broken in
and they are stealing my home.
You shouldn't be trying to steal my house.
Well, now the story's out.
Hopefully someone would help us.
[Krauth] In New York, you can't change
the locks, cut off the utilities,
or remove someone's belongings,
or the homeowner can be arrested.
[Adele] People seeing
a homeowner get arrested
for trying to protect her own home
is really what got everyone angry,
and I think that that that made
the story just spread everywhere.
The images have been seen and shared
by people around the world.
Those images went viral and
people couldn't not pay attention to it.
-This Queens-based homeowner
-You guys gotta see this video.
-was arrested for changing the locks on
-This is out of New York.
-a house she inherited from her parents.
-Y'all, this is wild.
It had gone on all these different sites
and on Instagram
and sites that I wasn't even on.
"I'm really fearful that these people are
going to get away with stealing my home."
It was out there and now
I just wanted to see it get handled.
Our original seven-year site investigation
caught the attention
of the Queens district attorney
who launched her own investigation
The Queens district attorney
says she watched our story
and decided to drop Adele's citations
to show up to court in New York City
and criminally charge Brian.
Prosecutors charged the accused squatter,
Brian Rodriguez,
with burglary, grand larceny
and possession of stolen property.
[Adele] I wanted him
to be held responsible
for all these months
of what he put us through.
It was assault in my eyes.
I got a contact from someone
at the Queens DA's office
that said we're gonna get them out
by the end of the week.
[police radio chatter]
I met them at my house.
[police officer] Yeah we're going in.
Open the door.
And they got everybody out.
NYPD! Get near the front door!
I don't know if vindicated
is the right word, but I felt heard.
These squatters
are being taken out in cuffs.
Someone is admitting
that you're in the wrong here.
This felt like a big win.
She was finally getting her home back.
-[Cohen] There you go.
-Here we go. [sighs]
[Cohen] All right, we're in.
She was ending one chapter,
but as she opened the door
She found that there were
a lot of damages to her home.
[Adele] The house
was absolutely destroyed.
Every single doorknob
in every single bedroom had been broken,
as if somebody locked it
and somebody kicked it in.
There was foot marks on all the doors.
They had stolen my mother's chandeliers
and replaced them with,
you know, $5 light fixtures.
They had completely trashed my house.
[Krauth] Brian ended up
taking a plea agreement,
pleading guilty
to falsely reporting an incident,
basically a false police report,
which is a Class E felony.
The felony burglary, grand larceny,
and stolen property charges were dropped.
He was sentenced to two years in prison
and five years
of supervised release after that.
[governor] The bill is passed.
[Krauth] In record time,
state lawmakers voted to change state law
and they actually put it in writing
that tenants do not include squatters.
This basically makes it easier for police
to remove squatters when they show up
and arrest them as a trespasser
and not send them to housing court,
where it takes years
for something to happen.
[Adele] Had I gone quietly,
had I gone to landlord-tenant court,
I think that
he would still be living in my house.
I think that I would still be in court.
I think this would be something that
would cost me a lot of money and time,
and I don't really think I would have
gotten the result that I actually did get.
Nobody could have planned how this
particular situation was gonna unfold.
I was unaware how often this was happening
and how many different places
it was happening.
So I think that people need to know
that this could happen to them.
[Brian] This is my fucking house!