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ST. GEORGE -- Imagine living in a spacious St. George home -- for free. That's what one family got away with for nine months. They were squatters illegally living in a bank-owned house, stealing utilities from neighbors.
With so many empty, foreclosed homes on the market, this might be something we'll be hearing about more often.
What's more, these people are getting away with it because authorities have their hands tied.
In a picturesque house and neighborhood in the Boulders development, one family nearly changed it all.
"I kept my gun on me all the time. I shouldn't have to do that," says neighbor Mark Biehl.
"It's heartbreaking that this is happening in your neighborhood," said another neighbor who would only be identified as Susie.
Last October, a family of four moved into a home on Boulder Springs Road in St. George. It had been vacant for a while before that, due to foreclosure.
The parents and their two toddlers started living in the basement but rarely came out of the house. Neighbors immediately grew suspicious.
"They were pulling into the garage and lifting the door up enough to get in, and the door would go right back down. They were hiding in there," said Susie, who lives across the street.
Soon enough, neighbors started seeing things go missing. The family next door suspected the squatters stole their water.
"The bill shot way up," said Biehl. "It went up to, like, well over $1,000 or something like that. Something crazy."
Neighbors called police, but St. George officers couldn't do anything since the complaints weren't coming from the homeowner -- CitiBank in Texas.
The reclusive family somehow got power, too. That may be because Dixie Escalante Electric doesn't require proof of residence, just payment.
When spring rolled around, the house on Boulder Springs Road no longer look like it was worth $1.2 million. Weeds sprouted and trees died.
Neighbors had enough. They called police -- but St. George officers couldn't do anything since the complaints weren't coming from the homeowner: CitiBank in Texas.
"It's that gray area where it's, you've got to have a complaint, you've got to have somebody... It becomes problematic," said Johnny Heppler with the St. George Police Department.
"The bank isn't here. How do we contact the bank? The bank is in Texas. How do we say we've got a problem here? What do we do? How do we handle it?" Susie said.
Finally in April the Department of Child and Family Services, along with police, inspected the home and found that the basement was trashed and heroin paraphernalia was everywhere.
The couple, Boyd and Dawn Bundy, were arrested for the drug use and their children were taken away.
The realtor on the home now says this is a major problem -- especially in St. George where there are hundreds of empty, bank-owned homes.
Realtor Ryan Andersen thinks legislators need to make it easier for law enforcement to crack down on squatters, since oftentimes police have their hands tied.
"Police need the ability to be able to go in and pull these people out of homes that are there illegally," Andersen said.
"It's something that definitely could be eye-opening for the police department and other property owners in the area," Heppler said.
So keep a close eye on vacant homes near you.
Neighbors think this could happen in other foreclosed homes in their neighborhood or somewhere like it. They say it's just that easy.
E-mail: ngonzales@ksl.com
