Man tries to steal 87-year-old woman’s home while she’s in Florida, Ohio cops say
A man is facing charges for trying to lay claim to a woman’s Ohio home while she was in Florida, authorities said.
The 39-year-old man is charged with burglary, criminal damaging or endangering, and possessing criminal tools, court records show.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges Dec. 13, WXIX reported.
Mason police said the man broke into an 87-year-old woman’s home in September while she was in Florida and tried to “lay claim to the property,” WLWT reported.
He’s also accused of renting a dumpster to get rid of the woman’s personal property, the outlet reported. The man tried to claim squatters’ rights for the home, Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell told the outlet.
Police estimate the woman’s losses to total more than $10,000, WKRC reported.
A nearby friend alerted the woman that people were going in and out of her house, prompting her to call 911 from Florida, according to the outlet.
“Throughout the summer, the grass had stayed long, and then he had moved in [I] figured maybe they had moved, they had sold it,” neighbor Robert Duchemin told WKRC.
Mason is about a 25-mile drive northeast from Cincinnati.
