Family says squatter moved into their house then sold their belongings online


One bold squatter allegedly decided to not only make himself at home inside of someone else's house, but to sell their furnishings as well.
Ed Saurs and his family moved from Puyallup, Washington, to Olympia, but hadn't put their old house on the market yet. At some point, a man allegedly moved into the house and began to put items up on Craigslist and OfferUp. Saurs said he went to the house on Tuesday to meet with a real estate agent, and saw a pickup truck in the driveway. He ran into a man inside his kitchen, who said he was there to buy a microwave. Then, Saurs said, another man slipped out through a sliding glass door. He chased him, but the man got away.
Saurs said the suspect sold about $5,000 worth of items, including a washer, dryer, stove, mattress, refrigerator, television, and tools. "It bothers me," he told USA Today. "This is our space, we lived here for 25 years. This is not a good way to end 25 years of living in a home." The Pierce County Sheriff's Office is investigating the incident, and a neighbor's surveillance camera was able to capture images of a man fleeing from the property. Saurs said it looks like the suspect had been living there for a while, and left behind some personal items. "Built a nice little nest for himself," he added.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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