An empty multimillion-dollar mansion in the Hollywood Hills hosted a group of squatters earlier this year, including a person who created a fake lease, a woman who claimed to be creating content for her Onlyfans page and a French bulldog.
Realtors Emily Randall-Smith and her husband, Tyler Smith, had planned to prepare the house for an open house on Jan. 6 when they came across obvious signs that someone had made themselves at home. The lockbox where officers had kept a key was open and a new mailbox had been placed out front.
Shortly before Christmas, the couple showed the property to potential buyers. It then remained vacant for a few weeks. The house is listed on Airbnb and is fully furnished, including kitchen utensils, said Randall-Smith, who recently shared her story of the ordeal on Instagram.
The day she and her husband returned to the house for the open house, they couldn't get in. Smith looked out a window and saw a man lying on a bed in one of the bedrooms. That's when the couple called the Los Angeles police. However, when officers knocked on the door, no one answered.
Officers walked around the property and used their police cruiser's loudspeaker to order anyone in the house to come out, Randall-Smith said. The owner told Randall-Smith that he did not want police to break down the front door to check for squatters.
Then the police left and the couple wasn't sure what to do next.
“My husband and I waited at the bottom of the hill and then we saw the lights come on,” Randall-Smith said. “We were like, 'Okay, there's definitely someone there.'”
The couple called the police again.
This time, Randall-Smith said, a woman answered the door. She said she was renting a room to a man and presented what she said was a rental agreement. To the real estate agents, the document clearly looked fake and the woman's name did not even appear on the document.
The apparent squatters had stocked the refrigerator. There was a meal cooking when police arrived, Randall-Smith said.
Police helped escort the woman, who was the only person there at the time, out of the home along with her dog, Randall-Smith said.
He later recorded a tour of the nightmarish house on his phone, including where the dog pooped and peed in the house.
There were bicycle locks on several doors and several garage door openers lay on a counter as if the intruders planned to stay for a long time, Randall-Smith said. The squatters also cut the wiring to the property's security cameras and installed their own home Wi-Fi network. She surmised that the added mailbox was an attempt to receive mail at the address.
Randall-Smith said the man who created the lease had several people staying at the house whose names were on the document, but none were in the house at the time police arrived, except for the Onlyfans model.
Neighbors told real estate agents that they thought the house was occupied by renters, who had hosted several parties over the holidays, Randall-Smith said.
“It just feels like a total violation,” he said. “I always tell people to be close to their neighbors so they can take care of their homes.”
The home is still for sale, Randall-Smith said, and police have not provided any updates on arrests or people staying at the home.
