Instagram account lets you squat in metro homes
news.yahoo.com
news.yahoo.com
The story never explains how they get the keys, which was the part I was the most confused about. But after looking into it more, what I think is happening is that they tell the person to choose any home on the Rently website. I have used Rently before, which has an awesome feature that lets you tour any home on your own schedule (without a real estate agent or homeowner). You basically just schedule an appointment through the app, then at your scheduled time you go to the home and you get a temporary code for a lockbox which has the key inside. You let yourself into the home and tour it, then put the key back when you are done.
I am assuming that after you "choose" the home on Rently, the people running this Instagram account put fake IDs and info into the Rently form, and then show up and get the keys from the lockbox. They probably cut the lockbox off after that (or maybe they don't care that much and just leave it on). Then they bring you the keys. Then you take the keys and squat in the house.
Which is funny, because there's no reason you need the middleman here. If you're going to be a criminal by squatting you might as well save the $1,400 and steal the keys yourself.
Especially the electronic ones, a sharp slap will open a good number of those.
For an "investigation," it's mind-blowing the reporter didn't think to include this detail.
> “Hey sir, it’s Justin Gray with Channel 2. Are you selling a squatter home right here? You got the keys? Did you talk to J.P. about the keys?” Gray asked the representative as they took off in a car
An interesting way to interview criminals
It's because, at minimum half of "average viewers" will consider not engaging with such questions as an admission of guilt.
Do not forget to add a heavy base to each webcam.
This way, you have additional court/legal/police evidence of the squatter-to-be and can get Sheriffs to evict the intruder(s).
A video-documented evidence is very useful in many applications.
FSBO is that most attractive target by squatters.
Squatting squirrels ? Trespassing pigeons ?
Metro is a terrible title for this, because metro is used in every major part of the country to mean the metropolitan area of the relative city. In this case it refers to Atlanta, but it could just as well be Denver metro, Chicago Metro, or anywhere else.
The title should read "Instagram account lets you squat in Atlanta homes"
There's something fishy about the article upon closer inspection.. reportedly by "Justin Gray" but he's quoted in the article more than once. Does Justin talk about himself in the third person? It looks like the source-article (on wsbtv.com) has the same language[0].
[0]: https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/this-is-stealing-ch...
Like you, I was confused about Justin Gray since he repeatedly quoted himself. There were also a lot of unclear pronouns throughout (things like, "He told him how he did that") which I really struggled to follow initially. However, watching the video it made more sense.
So Justin Gray is the reporter who did the story. He narrates the video, and so the transcript makes it seem like he is quoting himself, but its just a narration. Like I said, I read the whole article first and felt like it was written by a 5th grader. Then I realized it was a video afterward.