Homeowner arrested trying to evict squatter from late parents’ $1.5 million home

Adele Andaloro, 47, was recently nabbed after she changed the locks on the $US1 million ($1.5 million) home in Flushing, Queens, that she says she inherited from her parents when they died, ABC’s Eyewitness News reported.

“It’s enraging,” the homeowner said of the squatter saga. “It’s not fair that I, as the homeowner, have to be going through this.”

Ms Andaloro claims the ordeal erupted when she started the process of trying to sell the home last month but realised squatters had moved in — and brazenly replaced the entire front door and locks.

Fed up, she recently went to her family’s home on 160th Street — with the local TV outlet in tow — and called a locksmith to change the locks for her.

A heated, caught-on-camera spat with the alleged squatters quickly unfolded and ended with some of the so-called tenants — and Ms Andaloro — being led away in cuffs.

In New York City, a person can claim “squatter’s rights” after just 30 days of living at a property.

Under the law, it is illegal for the homeowner to change the locks, turn off the utilities, or remove the belongings of the “tenants” from the property.

“By the time someone does their investigation, their work, and their job, it will be over 30 days and this man will still be in my home,” Ms Andaloro said.

“I’m really fearful that these people are going to get away with stealing my home,” she added.

During the recent encounter at her home, Ms Andaloro — who was armed with the deeds — was filmed entering the property after one of the apparent tenants left the front door open.

After changing the locks, a man claiming to be on the lease — identified by the local outlet as Brian Rodriguez — returned to the property and barged through the front door.

“You shouldn’t be trying to steal my house,” a furious Ms Andaloro yelled at him during the caught-on-camera ordeal.

Following a flurry of 911 calls, responding cops told Ms Andaloro she had to sort the saga out in housing court because it was considered a “landlord-tenant issue”.

Ms Andaloro was ultimately arrested for unlawful eviction given she had changed the locks.

In addition to her arrest, Ms Andaloro said she is being forced to start an eviction filing in court to settle the landlord-tenant dispute.

The ordeal is just the latest involving squatters in the Big Apple in recent weeks after a couple’s plan to move into a $US2 million ($3 million) home in Douglaston, Queens, with their disabled son was derailed by a squatter who claimed to have an agreement with the previous owner.

Separately, a squatter was also found to have turned a Rockaways home into a stomach-turning house of horrors by keeping more than a dozen emaciated cats and dogs trapped inside the property.

This article originally appeared on NY Post and was reproduced with permission