A pair of Porsche-driving squatters were evicted Friday from the Long Island home where they’d been squatting since they convinced a judge they signed a lease with a dead man last year.
A bank that had put the house into foreclosure a decade ago went to court with death certificates proving that neither Edward Iacono, who died in 2016, nor his son, Edward Jr, who died in 2018, could have signed the lease with the couple last July.
The house had sat empty and abandoned for years after the family members died and had been in foreclosure for a decade, The New York Post reported. And a building inspector from the Town of North Hempstead deemed it “unlivable,” without heat, elecricity, hot water, or working bathrooms, in October, when neighbors called police to report the family was living in “squalid” conditions.
But Gayle, Glover, their toddler son, and a dog lived there anyway, angering their neighbors. The bank and the neighbors finally got Nassau Housing Court Judge Christopher Coschignano to reverse his decision and order them out last month.
On Friday, the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office arrived to physically throw them out and change the locks.
They arrived at 8:30 Friday morning and stood watch while Gayle, 29, and Glover, 19, put their belongings in a moving truck or their Porsche and left.
The belongings included a flat screen television, but it’s not clear how they used it if there was no electricity in the house.
A lawyer for the couple told The Post they believed they had a valid lease signed in July by someone they believed was Iacono, even though Iacono had been dead for eight years. They also attempted to be added as heirs to the home but were denied.
What happens to the dilapidated house next isn’t clear, as the Long Island residents, who claimed the couple harassed them after they had the arrested in October for living in “squalid” conditions, were only concerned with getting the squatters out.
The Town of North Hempstead has given the back a deadline to finish the lengthy foreclosure process or they’ll take over the property. Meanwhile, the town paid the bill for movers and 30 days of storage to get the squatters out.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast.
[Featured image: The house in 2019/Google Maps]