4 squatters arrested at Atlanta-area home, neighbors say they ran ‘an illegal strip club’
People in a metro Atlanta community said their nightmare is over after a SWAT team went in and arrested four people they claimed were nuisance neighbors.
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Channel 2′s Tom Jones went out to the city of South Fulton on Monday where police said they found two stolen cars, a stolen gun, stolen IDs, and credit cards inside a home.
Neighbors told Channel 2 Action News the people who lived in the home kept them up at all times of the night, with parties and other non-neighborly activities.
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“A lot of partying, they had an illegal strip club on the weekends,” one neighbor said.
People who live in the Thaxton Reserve community said they’ve lost plenty of sleep the last four months because of the nightmare neighbors at that home.
Neighbors told Channel 2 Action News there were piles of trash at the home, and people at the home raced in the streets.
They also said the air often reeked of marijuana, there was sporadic gunfire, and even spotted horses outside of the home.
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“They would get live horses. One day they had live horses,” a neighbor said.
Neighbors had complained to the police but nothing happened until Sunday morning, when neighbors watched as a SWAT team marched toward the home.
Officers went inside and one by one arrested four people.
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Police told Jones that on Sunday morning an officer came to the home after a license plate reader indicated a stolen car was there.
Officers said when they got to the home, the driver refused to come out.
Once SWAT was inside of the home, police said they found another stolen car, stolen IDs and credit cards.
“There was a stolen weapon that was recovered from the residence,” Capt. Derick Rogers with the City of South Fulton Police Department said.
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Neighbors said after the four people were arrested, they learned that they were actually squatters who were living in the home.
Police have been driving by making sure no one comes back to this home.
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The councilwoman for the area, Carmalitha Gumbs, said the city council is discussing ways to hold corporations and owners of vacant homes like this accountable because they often breed criminal activity.
All four suspects, DeAnthony Maddox, Jeremy Wheat, Kelvin Hall, and Tarahsjay Forde, are facing multiple charges.
CLICK HERE to read the original article by WSB-TV.
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