ST. LOUIS – Three squatters, according to the police, have taken over a home on a quiet dead-end street in St. Louis’ Fox Park neighborhood.

“That’s a mind blower right there,” Ernest Campbell said. He’s lived on the block since 1962 and had no idea. “Now I’ll be even more alert, even though I’m alert anyway, looking around, but you just don’t know.”

The tip to police came in as a burglary on July 11. The caller, who court records say did not want to be identified, reported that the duplex place should be completely unoccupied yet she saw someone leaving.

“I’m thinking about the lady going in to check the property by herself,” Mary Adele Mehan, who’s visiting a friend on the block, said. “That somebody might be in there—that is such a frightening position to be in as a woman.”

According to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s probable cause statement, the female caller is a real estate agent, and she reported that the suspect told her he’d purchased the property in a tax sale. Officers confirmed there was no tax sale and that it’s had the same owner for 15 years.

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“To know a tax sale would be a thing—that that language was even something he could propose as an option for something that might have happened—it must have been intimidating for everyone,” Mehan commented.

Court records say officers observed an extension cord going from the basement, also unoccupied, to the second floor.

Then upstairs, police say they identified co-defendants Sara Garrett, Tijuan Bush, and Joy Connelly. Additionally, they found mattresses, a television, and a window air conditioning unit connected to the basement extension cord.

Power supplies could now be seen being pulled from the building. Each defendant is charged with tampering with property and trespassing, both misdemeanors. Neighbors are thankful authorities responded.

“Thank you—thank you to, you know, whoever caught it and P.D. Yes, thanks law enforcement,” Campbell commented.

FOX 2 found the property owner listed in tax records., but they have not responded to requests to discuss the subject.

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