Single mother evicted, left to pay for damages after police search home for suspect who wasn’t there
STILLWATER, Okla. (KFOR) – A single mother of two young girls has been left homeless after the Oklahoma home she was living in was at the center of a standoff Wednesday night.
Brittany Fent, of Stillwater, said police arrived at her home in search of a suspect who wasn’t there — and hadn’t been, for around a month.
“I was pleading with them that they could have the keys and that he wasn’t in there,” said Fent, who has lived at the home for three years.
Now, she said the management company is planning to evict her, and make her pay for the damages caused by authorities during the search.
Stillwater Police said they had gotten word Wednesday afternoon from Lincoln County officials that Lewis Bearden III, Fent’s ex-boyfriend, was inside the home. Police said he had felony arrest warrants for burglary and robbery, and that they had information he was inside.
“He wasn’t there and I told them several times that he wasn’t,” said Fent. “I kept begging them to use my keys and get inside if needed, but they didn’t listen or believe me. Now I’m left without a home.”
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Fent told News 2’s sister station, KFOR, that she had dated Bearden, but they had broken up over a month ago.
“I am living paycheck to paycheck trying to afford food for my girls,” said Fent. “I got an eviction notice earlier today and management told me that I would be the one to have to pay for the damages.”
The damage is extensive throughout the home and on the outside. Several windows were broken, the door had been ripped off, the children’s beds had been broken into wooden pieces, clothes were thrown around, the walls were damaged, the TV busted, and more.
Fent said her two little girls were with their grandparents when the standoff and search took place, but “now they don’t have their clothes, their beds are broken,” Fent said.
“I told them that they can willingly go inside and that they don’t have to demolish it,” she added.
When asked why they decided to break the kid’s beds among the other things in the house SPD replied, “Once we’re inside we’re searching every possible location, trying to look through anything that could help find him.”
“I just wish they would’ve believed me that he wasn’t there and I wish that they understood how the damage would leave us heartbroken and I don’t even know how to tell my kids what happened,” said Fent.
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Stillwater Police continued their efforts to search for Bearden through Friday morning, when the suspect turned himself in after seeing KFOR’s story about her situation.
“He seen what the police department did to his family on the news and he wanted to do the right thing,” his sister, Leticia Bearden, said.
Lincoln County officials told KFOR on Friday that Bearden was being booked into the jail.
For now, Fent and her kids are staying with her sister-in-law until she can find a more permanent situation.
“I work just to live week by week and paycheck to paycheck, I don’t have any money so I don’t know what happens next,” said Fent.
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