Buying a house is supposed to come with a set of keys and an empty property. For the new owners behind the video posted by @dawson.criddle, it came with a squatter who refused to leave — and refused to leave again, and again, after that.
The video opens mid-confrontation, with the new owners at the front door trying to get someone to come out. “Hey, someone’s in there. Who’s in there? Hey, you’re gonna wanna come out?” a voice calls. When the person inside claims ownership — “I’m owner” — the response is immediate and firm: “No, you’re not, buddy. Show us paperwork.” The man inside insists it’s his property and tells them not to come on it; the owners hold their ground. “That’s your property. Alright, you can come out or we’ll call the cops. Your choice.”
What follows is a calm but unmistakably firm ultimatum, delivered with the practiced tone of people who have clearly done this before. “If you’re not talking, you’re getting evicted tomorrow. You’re trespassing. This is our house. There’s no court when you’re trespassing. You don’t have a lawyer. You don’t even have a house.” They offer him a way out that costs them money but saves everyone a legal headache: “You can come out and you can negotiate cash for keys, or we’ll show up tomorrow morning with the sheriff and bust open the locks and just evict you out. We’ve done this a million times before. Your choice.”
According to the caption accompanying the video, this wasn’t a one-time standoff. The owners say they bought the Oakland property knowing this man kept breaking back in. They eventually changed the locks and boarded the property up, only to find him inside again. Oakland PD was called to remove him from the property — and, per the caption, “YES HE DID COME BACK….multiple times.”
What Property Owners Actually Need to Know About Squatters
This video captures something a lot of new property owners don’t expect to deal with, but that’s become a growing headache in cities with large numbers of vacant or distressed properties: repeat squatting, where someone returns to a property again and again even after being removed.
The phrase “cash for keys” that the owners use in the video is a real, widely used strategy in real estate — rather than going through a lengthy and expensive formal eviction process, an owner offers a occupant a cash payment in exchange for voluntarily vacating and returning the keys by an agreed date. It’s often faster and cheaper than a court process, even though it can feel counterintuitive to pay someone who has no legal right to the property in the first place.
Owners should also know that the legal distinction between a squatter and a tenant matters enormously, and varies by state. Someone who has never had permission to be on a property and has no lease is generally treated as a trespasser, not a tenant — which is why the owners in this video can call police to remove him rather than going through a formal eviction. But if a squatter has occupied a property openly and continuously for a long enough period (the exact timeframe varies widely by state, sometimes years), some states allow a claim of adverse possession, which is exactly why property owners are advised not to let a vacant property sit unmonitored for long stretches.
For anyone buying a distressed or previously vacant property, changing locks immediately, boarding up access points, checking in on the property frequently, and documenting every incident with photos, video, and police reports — exactly what this owner has been doing — are the practical steps that make repeat removal enforceable rather than an endless loop.
You can watch the full video and follow @dawson.criddle on TikTok for more.
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