See What Squatters Left in this Rosemont Home

After weeks of trying, a Rosemont home is finally free of squatters.

Mike O'Brein said he's been trying since 2010 to sell a home on Sutters Gold Drive that belonged to his mother until she could no longer afford the payments, but he's had squatters move in three separate times. He said the most recent group broke a window, then changed the locks on the house.

"About three or four weeks ago we got a call from code enforcement asking if people [were] living in the house," O'Brein said.

O'Brein, who lives in Rancho Cordova, said he tried with no avail to get the squatters out of the house, all the while watching nearby residents complain in the Rosemont Neighborhood Watch Facebook group about suspicious activity near the house.

On Thursday, March 15, O'Brein and , paid a visit to the house.

"There was five people in there–one wasn't there at the time," O'Brein said. "We told them they needed to go. They were out Friday morning."

O'Brein said one of the squatters was his brother's wife's brother. He said he and his wife spent seven hours cleaning the house the following weekend, and found dozens of syringes, old VCRs and televisions, a walker and more.

"That place is in bad shape," he said. "[But] it's in better shape than I thought it would be."

Sacramento County Sheriff's Department spokesman Dep. Jason Ramos said if any of the squatters would be charged, it would likely be for a misdemeanor offense of unathorized entry into a dwelling.

"I would say that we are not 'likely' to arrest if some other disposition can be arrived at (mainly, the people leaving!!)," Ramos said in an email. "If it were an ongoing problem, the likelihood of arrests would increase, of course."

For now, O'Brein is happy for Neff's help, and is hopeful he can keep the squatters from returning. He's boarded up every window except the large one in the living room; that way he and other neighbors can tell if someone is in the house when they shouldn't be.

"[I've] got a new Realtor who's got somebody who's interested in buying it," he said.