A viral video showing a Chicago, Illinois, woman dealing with squatters invading her home has set the Internet on fire.
“Hello, hello, Chicago police!” the officers who came along with the woman to remove the squatters announced as they walked into the house, as seen in the video posted on X. The clip was being recorded by the homeowner, who showed the house completely in a state of disarray. There were clothes, shoes, and other things everywhere in the house, both on the floor and on the couch. One of the squatters was fast asleep on the couch and only woke up when the police officers came in. “Y’all are wild, cause there’s no telling if y’all were the ones who broke into my crib two weeks ago,” the homeowner interrogated.
After a few moments, two other squatters were found in the room, and the woman behind the camera got very angry. “I work hard for my things. I have three babies,” she screamed as one of the officers ordered her to step back. “I swear to God, when my baby daddy gets back, I promise you, imma see y’all working these streets, and I got something for y’all,” she threatened as the squatters were allowed to pick up their things and exit the house.
Users were as astonished about the situation as the homeowner and stormed the comments to defend her. “The police are treating the squatters better than the woman who pays to live there!” one wrote. “Wtf kinda police is this… this must be a thing wherever this… they should be in handcuffs,” another said. “Squatter’s rights have got to be the dumbest law I’ve heard of,” another confessed. One user pointed out how disarranged the house was, writing, “Crazy how squatters treat places they don’t own… You’d think they’d at least maintain it, but it always ends up trashed. Why does this happen every time?”
Another user was concerned about the way the squatters were allowed to randomly pick up things on their way out: “My thing is, why are they letting them grab anything? How do they know what they’re grabbing is actually for them?” Many commenters couldn’t understand why the squatters weren’t handcuffed off the woman’s property, given the extenuating circumstances. “They should have been in handcuffs. SMH, imagine coming home and people are in your house. SMH,” read a remark.
“The first time they broke in would’ve been the last,” one user wrote, and a last comment read, “Now they’ll get free accommodation in jail.”
Good on the Chicago woman for calling the authorities to handle the squatters, but if there are no consequences for breaking into someone’s home, a repeat crime might be right around the corner.
