When Daniel Cabrera purchased a five-bedroom property in San Antonio, he didn’t expect to find the previous resident there with her aggressive goat.
Cabrera, a professional buyer, bought the property for $175,000 from a woman who was about to foreclose on it, Fox News reported.
He gave her the money for the property and assured her another 10 days to move out and find new accommodation, but once those days were up he was no longer able to contact her.
When Cabrera showed up to take over the property, he discovered that it was still inhabited and that an angry goat was guarding the front door.
“I tried to approach the door and it was a very big goat,” he told Fox News. “It wasn’t friendly either. I couldn’t get past the damn goat.”
Cabrera had to file for an eviction to get the woman out of the house.
Five months later, he returned to the property with police, a locksmith and a moving company, but found the goat running around inside, Realtor.com reported.
“The goat ran at the police officer, hit his leg, and then he nailed my dad too,” Cabrera told Fox News. “We called for animal control because the police just didn’t know what to do with the goat.”
He managed to gain control of the property and the goat was eventually reclaimed by the former owner’s son, according to Realtor.com.
The next day, Cabrera found the former resident on a mattress in the driveway, he told the outlet.
Cabrera is not the only person to deal with unwanted guests, with cases of squatting appearing repeatedly in the news in recent months.
A New York couple found themselves embroiled in a legal battle after a squatter moved into their $2 million home before they had a chance to move in themselves.
Another group of squatters lived for five months in a vacant Beverly Hills mansion. The group made money from the house by throwing parties with entry fees ranging from $500 to $1,500, before the house was returned to the previous owner.
Such incidents have drawn backlash from some lawmakers, even though there are no official nationwide statistics indicating whether squatting is increasing.
In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill in March that he said was intended to provide property owners with “remedies against squatting,” as well as increase penalties against squatters.
“We are putting an end to the squatter scam in Florida,” said DeSantis, who previously ran as a Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential election.
The problem is not unique to the United States, however.
According to The Guardian, the Advisory Service for Squatters, a squatters’ rights group in the UK, has seen an increase in the number of inquiries from people considering squatting since the COVID pandemic.
In April, British chef Gordon Ramsay found one of his restaurants occupied by squatters. The group of squatters told Business Insider they wanted to turn the restaurant into a “community space” in one of London’s wealthiest neighborhoods.
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