Suspect Arrested in Great Lakes for House-Stealing Scheme
Decatur Metro | October 5, 2011 | 2:39 pm“For the birds” alerted me to police activity at 130 Champlain Street yesterday morning. The Chief of Police Mike Booker was good enough to get back to me with details from the press release put out by DeKalb County. Here’s a snippet of it…
Today, the DeKalb County Grand Jury returned a two count indictment for Susan Weidman, Ian Greye and Matthew Lowery. They are indicted on charges of Acquiring Property Through a Pattern of Racketeering Activity and Conspiracy to Acquire Property Through a Pattern of Racketeering Activity. Weidman was arrested at a Decatur residence by Decatur Police Department after a search and arrest warrant was issued by the DeKalb County Grand Jury. DeKalb DA’s Office executed the search warrant at the Decatur residence at 10:30 am on Tuesday, October 4th.
If that isn’t enough detail for you, you’re in luck. WSB wrote a very detailed report of this arrest just yesterday and also featured it on the air [see above]. Apparently the news org brought Weidman’s activities to light in a “yearlong investigation”.
Love her last quote in the news story about “if this was illegal why didn’t they tell me.”
Didn’t her mama tell her that two wrongs don’t make a right.
And who is “they?” The Department of Pre-Crime?
+1 (that made me laugh out loud!)
Made me laugh as well.
Awesome.
double +1
Much obliged to the props. My humor-ego needed a resurrection.
I think the ‘making up a fake law firm and signing on their behalf’ is probably a tip off that “they” didn’t need to tell her it was illegal…
It’s a bit like the old Steve Martin bit, “I forgot armed robbery was illegal.”
We need to round up these idiots and the “Sovereign Citizen” scammers and ship them to Detroit. More vacant homes than you can shake a stick at! Squat away!
Yeah, but they don’t wanna squat in the cold…
I’ve spent the last few weeks researching and interviewing LEOs and others about sovereign citizens. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw the headline, and it wouldn’t surprise me if these folks belonged to that group. Maybe I’ll sit in on the trial because if they are, it’ll be most interesting.
I hear this has been horrible for the immediate neighbors with all sorts of weird comings and goings at all hours of the day and night, not being able to let their children be alone in the front yard, having to call the police, doing their own detective work tracking down the previous owner and the foreclosure bank, etc. Nice for all the honest parties to finally have closure on this drama.
It just sucks that it took so long.
So I guess the area residents contacted WSB then?
Don’t know but there’s been periodic desperate-sounding pleas for help or information on the Clairemont Great Lakes Neighborhood for the last several months.
CGLNA listserv is what I meant
Do you know how I can find that listserv?
I think it’s a Yahoo group but it might be a Google group. Try those sites and search for “CGLNA”. If you live in the general Clairemont school district area, you should belong.
Thanks very much! My son will be going to Clairemont Elementary next year. I Google’d it and found it so I’ll join today.
You might also want to get on email list for the CSD eBlast newsletter (go to CSD homepage, uppper right hand corner link) and the Clairemont Newsletter (bottom right of the school homepage.) I always get on the newsletter listserv for the school one ahead for my child so I get a feel for things ahead of time. School activities come hard, fast, and furious once you get there so it’s kind of nice to get acculturated ahead of time.
http://www.cglna.org/story.php?s=4
DM lists their website under Neighborhood Sites (right column). It has a link to their listserv.
DM is doubly helpful! :0)
Per the article, sounds like the bank’s realtors did:
“Channel 2 investigative reporter Jodie Fleischer first began investigating Weidman a year ago, after Weidman allegedly canceled her own mortgage to try to stop the bank from foreclosing on her home. After seeing that investigation, the bank’s Realtors for the DeKalb and Forsyth homes contacted Fleischer, to help piece together Weidman’s documents by comparing signatures and following the paper trail.”
Ah cool, thanks. I didn’t see that piece of info.
Thank god they finally did something about this. Hearing the people on CGLNA listserv talk about it, I felt pretty dumb that we actually bought our house rather than just moving in…
See how unfair this is? “They” did something about it, would it have been too much trouble for “them” to give a heads up that moving into a foreclosed home and pretending to own it is illegal?
How come this wasn’t all over DM? A friend of mine in John’s Creek had something similar happen in her country club neighborhood.
Maybe yo friend gave you baby the OTP rash, huh. And you’re blaming J_T. Tsk, tsk.
Good catch there, Chadass! And from what I hear, the Johns Creek strain is an especially virulent new contagion!
Word is, It’s spreading around at all those tea parties up there. In the late stages it erases any trace of humanity you ever had. Nothing but a bunch of soulless zombies up that way. You’re lucky you got back when you did. Much longer, and I shudder to think…
“How come this wasn’t all over DM?”
The CGLNA is almost a blog into itself except that it’s a listserv so there is no option for anonymity. There is a moderator. I suspect that many of the CGLNAers still don’t know about DM. The CGLNA listserv may be the reason that DM seems to have more of a southside following even though the topics clearly cover all of Decatur.
“How come this wasn’t all over DM?”
Because it was gossip?
Not sure it was gossip for the neighbors concerned. Sounds like they were affected in very concrete ways and were reaching out for help from whatever source possible because the situation went on and on and on despite pleas to the bank, the previous owner (who of course could do nothing but felt awful about the impact on her old neighbors), and the police, and ????
I am quite sure the neighborhood was impacted in a negative way.
However, until some concrete evidence was found and the individuals indicted, was not just a rumor and gossip?
Don’t know. I guess that’s the journalistic challenge. What is gossip/rumor and what is breaking news? I would think that all the police complaints and court documents filed around 130 Champlain were some kind of news. And what is appropriate for a blog? For a listserv? Many of the neighborhood listservs serve as alerts to neighbors, about break-ins, car thefts, etc. I think the Great Lakes residents appreciated knowing about the disturbing goings-on at 130 Champlain. But certainly listserv moderators have to make sure that postings stay reasonable and do not degenerate into pure gossip.
Absolutely agree it was appropriate for the list serve.
Simple question. How did she get in these houses in the first place? Did they break in?
Sometimes a door is left unlocked. The bank sends various people to check on/fixup the house once it finally goes as a for sale foreclosure (in our otp neighborhood that’s been anywhere from 2 weeks to 18 months), then they send a company to do lawn maintenance once a month or so. If you are lucky, people will actually have a realtor show them the house which means one more person to potentially leave something unlocked.
The house across the street from me has been empty for a year and a half. Discovered a month ago that the back garage door is unlocked, meaning the whole house is accessible. Since no agent has been by to show the house for 5 months now, it would have been pretty easy for someone to move in and the bank not notice.
(and as a sidenote we discovered the unlocked door when taking advantage of their flat driveway to have our child practice riding her bike. Tires needed air, checked the door and low and behold it opened right up. Brought over our pump, realized you couldn’t lock it without a key, called the realtor, still no one has come by. )
I’ve read the story and watched the video but I still don’t understand this crime. How could it have ended in anything besides an arrest? I don’t understand the objective. Surely it wasn’t as simple as just wanting a free place to stay? Could the squatters/racketeers have ever taken actual possession of the property?
Criminal thinking always baffles me. My first grade teacher hammered into us that she would always find out who did what wrong and you were a lot better off admitting wrong than lying about it. Ever since then I’ve been convinced that you cannot get away with anything you did deliberately wrong so there’s no point in trying.
From the various news reports, I’m getting the sense that Weidman experienced a foreclosure that led to her reasoning that since banks stole something from her, she is entitled to steal from banks. My guess is that she makes it a habit of feeling entitled to things she didn’t earn.
Adverse Possession is the legal term for what is generally called Squatter’s rights. And it is not criminal. The criminal aspect of this case involves the fraud they commited around the squatting.
Wow, “adverse possession” is a strange concept: Wiki Answers: “Adverse possession is the taking of title to real estate by possessing it for a certain period of time. The person claiming title to real estate by adverse possession must have actual possession of the real estate that is open, notorious, exclusive, and adverse to the claims of others to title of the real estate. ” and “Since adverse possession must be exclusive, the time stops running whenever the squatter’s (adverse possessor’s) possession is interrupted. This can be even as simple as having a picnic table installed on the disputed land.”
During the certain period of time, e.g. 7 years in some states, isn’t the squatting illegal? I’m so confused.
The way I’ve always understood it, if you can manage to occupy a vacant property for the prescribed time period, without being challenged or driven off by the owners, then you can claim adverse possession. During that time, you are illegally squatting, and I would think the key is to be as unobtrusive and non-threatening as possible to avoid arousing suspicion among the neighbors. But if you can do that, and the owner is sufficiently negligent, then theoretically you can get away with it. Lawyers amongst us, is that correct?
I’ve usually heard about it in the context of easements, especially in rural areas. For instance, if somebody(s) start cutting across your land and you don’t do anything about it, then after a period of some years it becomes a recognized easement (or right-of-way? not sure of my terminology) and then you can’t do anything about it.
Seems like this woman has more than one wheel in the ditch, though, and was seeking drama as much or more than trying to secure a place to live.
Let me start out by saying, I’m not an attorney, I just work for them. I’ve been a real estate title examiner for almost 15 years and it is only on occasion that adverse possession comes up. It gets complicated, and don’t quote me (because I could be recalling wrong) but there are different “types” of adverse possession in Georgia, prescriptive and “color of title”. Ones a situation where your neighbor (unbeknown or perhaps you don’t care) puts a walkway or fence or what have you over into your property. They maintain it, paint it, mow it, what have you. After a period of 20 years they could claim legal rights to it. Color of title comes into play after 7 years BUT there has to be some basis for claim, perhaps the person claiming ownership has a deed but it was improperly executed, or two people hold title to the same piece. (yes, I’ve seen this). I half suspect that this woman filed her adverse possession doc at the courthouse to “validate” her claim under color of title. Yes, she filed something. I saw it. All us deed dogs did and we all laughed. If memory serves, she actually filed this doc prior to the foreclosure deep under power being recorded. I didn’t pay attention to the actually date on the DUP ( because I didn’t know I would be responding to this!) on a different note, those sovereign folks sure have colorful imaginations ! The docs they file smack of insanity. The oldest sovereign person doc I saw was filed in the early 90’s. Wish I could find it. The language is so convoluted it often makes it difficult to decipher. My two cents. Glad they finally arrested her.
Sorry for all the typos. Thanks, auto correct!
Wow, this story made the Atlantic…
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/housing/2011/10/how-steal-house-and-almost-get-away-it/251/
Evidently we’re not the only ones astounded by this woman’s chutzpah. Question re “Beginning last December, Weidman identified a number of foreclosed houses and eventually filed the paperwork to acquire them through adverse possession: How could she file paperwork if the 7 years of occupancy hadn’t passed yet? Or am I looking for too much logic in the actions of someone who is either deluded into thinking she is entitled to get away with things or is just plain deluded?
The adverse possession thing is a canard. If you have “color of title,” some legitimate basis to believe that you are an owner (like you are an heir of your aunt’s estate and her home has been vacant for 5 years), you must maintain open and notorious possession, meaning you got to act like it is yours, for 7 years. If you have no color of title, meaning you just show up and move in with no legal basis, then it is 20 years of open and notorious possession. That might have worked 150 years ago when a family moved on to undeveloped land behind the back of beyond, but it never works now. Filing the “paperwork” with the court means, I assume, this lady and her partners in crime filed some legally wrong, factually inaccurate motions with the Superior Court. All this stuff, the fake law firm, the bougus filings and the other mumbo jumbo, is a scheme to muddy the waters about the legality of their actions to disuade banks, who are dealing with 1000s of these homes, from taking action.