Squatters Score With Vacant Foreclosed Homes; Use Phony Leases To Get Free Temporary Housing, Squeeze Banks For 'Cash For Keys' 'Walking' Money

In Antioch, California, NBC Bay Area reports:

• It's a problem plaguing our country. Squatters moving into foreclosed homes and banks paying them to get out. It's happening in one Antioch neighborhood. Neighbors formed a neighborhood watch program in part because they noticed lots of homes being foreclosed in he area.



• They were apparently right to be worried. Police arrested three people Tuesday on Bedrock Way in Antioch.



• Police said the people in the home tried to show them a phony lease, but they weren't fooled. A following search of the home netted stolen goods and a stolen car.



• Authorities believe the people arrested were involved in what is called cash for keys. That's when criminals move into foreclosed homes and banks end up paying them thousands of dollars to move out.



• "I think most of the bank agents know that these folks shouldn’t be there it’s easier just to pay them get them out and everything’s left there," Capt. Leonard Orman with Antioch police said. Orman said cash for keys happens all the time in his city where there are hundreds of bank owned homes nestled in nice neighborhoods.

Source: Squatters Plaguing Foreclosure Neighbors (The latest crime wave to hit Antioch is called cash for keys).