WPB Man Convicted In Earlier Home-Hijacking Incident Bagged Again; Accused Of Filing Four Adverse Possession Claims On Homes Soon After Jail Release

In West Palm Beach, Florida, The Palm Beach Post reports:

• A year in jail wasn't enough to deter a 52-year-old West Palm Beach man bent on renting out homes he doesn't own. Claiming he is backed by an obscure Florida law pertaining to abandoned and vacant property, Carl Heflin again has attempted to take homes via adverse possession and rent them to unwitting tenants, according to Palm Beach County sheriff's investigators.

• He was arrested the first time in relation to the practice in 2009. Following a July release from the Palm Beach County Jail,(1) Heflin filed adverse possession papers on four homes, renting one on Tallahassee Drive and accepting $2,500 from a tenant to begin a three-year lease.

• Heflin was arrested again Tuesday afternoon on multiple charges of, among other things, burglary, organized scheme to defraud and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. On Wednesday, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Krista Marx ordered Heflin held in lieu of $100,000 bail.

• Heflin's 17-year-old daughter, Carli, also was charged with burglary because she allegedly broke windows to get into empty homes so her father could change the locks, the sheriff's report says.

For more, see West Palm Beach man arrested again for allegedly trying to rent out homes he doesn't own.

(1) Reportedly, Heflin's original charges related to adverse possession were pleaded down to misdemeanor trespassing because prosecutors said he had already spent 13 months in prison and the victims or owners of the properties were either unavailable or unwilling to appear for trial.