Squatters? Seriously??

[Wish I had a good picture of some squatters to post, but that might be gross....so maybe it's better that I don't, lol.]

Oh, and this is a pretty long post, but it's a great story, let me tell ya! :)

Okay, so Nathan, Eli and I went out to our new house on Saturday to take some measurements for carpet and various other things. We were in the kitchen with the front door open when we heard, "Excuse me?" and saw a lady on the front porch. So we went over and said hi, and she introduced herself as our neighbor across the street, and asked if we were moving in. We told her we were, but not for a few more weeks. She then told us this:

"Well, I don't want to be a bother or a nosy neighbor or anything, but I wanted to let you know that we have had about 9 houses targeted in this neighborhood by squatters. There is a family on this street that are the 'masterminds' behind it all -- they go through and find vacant houses that have been foreclosed on, then they break into the house, move in their furniture, and create a fake deed for the house. Then they change the locks, and when the new owners come to occupy the house, it's a huge legal battle trying to get them out. Usually it's been taking anywhere from 9 months to a year to get these people out."

Uh, seriously? I just about died. Who knew that we would even have to WORRY about things like this! And then she says this:

"And I just wanted you to know that we saw someone trying to break into your side door to the garage a few days ago. So we called the police and let them know what was going on, then we called the listing agent for this house to tell them as well. It looks like they had someone come out and change the locks on that side door."

AAAAACCKK! Our new house is under attack by squatters! I'm sure you can only imagine how grateful we were to this kind neighbor for telling us all about this. I can't imagine what we would have had to do to take these people to court if they did get into the house and started 'living' there. Gross!! And the worst part would be that we haven't officially closed on the house yet, so we would have no claim to the house, it would be a fight between the bank who owns the house and the squatters, and we would be stuck in the middle, waiting to see what happens. I'm just PRAYING that this doesn't happen to our house and that everything will be okay with our closing. I have half a mind to drive up there every day and just hang out at the house to protect it, LOL.

She went on to tell us that she was really good friends with the family that used to live in our house and she was really glad to see a new family taking up residence. She was like, "despite what I just told you, we have a really great neighborhood with tons of kids and lots of friendly people." Ha. That made me laugh. Poor woman, trying to warn us and yet not scare us off at the same time, LOL. :) But I am sure she's right about the neighborhood, we've seen lots of kids out and about whenever we've gone out there, and there are a lot of Yes on Prop 8 signs scattered around the area, so that makes me feel better. :)

So here's the question -- have any of you ever had to deal with ANYTHING like this? Or know someone who has? What advice do you have? Because right now, we don't officially own the house, so it's not like we can move in some of our own stuff or anything. We did take the key to the house that was in the lockbox, because the neighbor told us that she saw a lady over there trying to break into the lockbox and get the keys. GOSH! This is crazy.

So yeah, any prayers or good thoughts that you can throw our way regarding this would be awesome. I just want to know that 'our' house is safe while we wait for our closing date! Wish us luck. :)