Yahoo News Family return from Christmas holiday to find squatter in their house who changed locks
A family were shocked to return home from their Christmas holiday to discover a squatter living inside their house.
Homeowner Janice Henson found that the locks of her property in Marietta, Georgia, had been changed when she returned the day after New Year’s Day.
A man in a wheelchair was squatting inside the house on Vintage Club Circle, claiming he lived there now and that he had a gun, WSB-TV reported.
She contacted police, who say the man, Nathaniel Jacob Nuckols, 26, from Canton, had threatened to shoot them.
He was removed from the home after a five-hour standoff, when a SWAT team broke down the door and sent in a robot. Nuckols surrendered peacefully.
Police said they did not find a weapon on him or in the home.
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It is not known how long Nuckols was allegedly squatting in the house, but Ms Henson found all her family’s food gone and belongings rearranged.
She said: “He also left us notes thanking us for the key and thanking us for letting him live here, and it was his house now.
“He moved all the pictures, emptied drawers. He was making this house his.”
She said her family would live in a hotel until their home was restored to its former state.
Nuckols has been charged with first-degree burglary, making terroristic threats and misdemeanor obstruction. He is being held in jail on a $33,220 (£26,117) bond.
