A vacant multi-million dollar mansion in the Hollywood Hills was hacked to death earlier this year by a group of squatters, including a person who created a fake lease, a woman who claims to be creating content for her OnlyFans page, and a French bulldog. It had become a place to live.
Real estate agent Emily Randall Smith and her husband, Tyler Smith, were planning to prepare their home for an open house on January 6th when they noticed telltale signs that someone had settled in their home. . The security box where employees kept their keys had been pried open, and a new mailbox had been installed in front of it.
Just before Christmas, the couple was showing the property to prospective buyers. It remained vacant for several weeks after that. The home is listed on Airbnb and is fully furnished, including kitchenware, Randall Smith said. She recently shared her story about the ordeal on Instagram.
The day she and her husband returned home for an open house, they couldn’t get into the house. Smith looked through the window and saw a man lying on the bed in one of her bedrooms. At that time, the couple called the Los Angeles Police Department. However, when the police knocked on the door, no one answered.
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Randall Smith said officers roamed the property and used their squad car’s loudspeaker to order anyone inside the home to come out. The homeowner told Randall Smith that he didn’t want police breaking down his front door to check on the squatters.
The police then left, and the couple didn’t know what to do next.
“My husband and I were waiting at the bottom of the hill and we saw the lights come on,” Randall Smith said. “We said to ourselves, ‘Okay, there’s definitely someone out there.'”
The couple called the police again.
This time, a woman answered the door, Randall Smith said. She said she was renting her room from a man and she submitted what she called a rental agreement. To the real estate agent, the document clearly looked fake, and the woman’s name wasn’t even on the document.
People who appeared to be illegal occupants had stocked up on refrigerators. Randall Smith said the meal was being prepared when police arrived.
Randall Smith said police helped remove the woman, who was the only person present at the time, from the home along with her dog.
She then recorded a nightmarish tour of her home on her phone, with her dog pooping and urinating inside.
Randall Smith said bicycles were locked on multiple doors and several garage door openers were left on the counter, as if the intruders intended to stay for an extended period of time. That’s what it means. The squatters also cut the wires to the surveillance cameras on the premises and installed Wi-Fi at their homes. She assumed that the mailbox that was added was the one that was trying to receive mail at that address.
Randall Smith said the man who drew up the rental agreement had multiple people staying at the home named on the document, but by the time police arrived, no one was present except for the OnlyFans model. He said he wasn’t at home.
Randall Smith said neighbors told a real estate agent they believed the home was occupied by a renter. The renter reportedly held multiple parties during the holidays.
“It feels like a complete violation,” she said. “I always tell people to stay close to have their neighbors watch over their homes.”
Randall Smith said the home is still for sale and police have not provided any updates on the arrests or the people who were staying at the home.
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
