American woman arrested for trying to win back her house from a squatter: "I spent the night on a rug" (7 photos)

A Georgia woman has been arrested for trying to get back into her own home. Loleta Hale has been fighting for months with Sakemeia Johnson, who occupied her home without permission.





Loleta is charged with trespassing and making terroristic threats.

Sakemeia walked away from the incident without any charges.

"I spent the night on a rug on a concrete floor while this woman, a squatter, slept in my house," Hale told WSB-TV.



Squatting is the act of unauthorized occupation of a place or building by persons (squatters) who are not the legal owners or tenants of the place, or who do not have other permission to use it.





The rightful owner said she was at the house on December 9 to clean up when she saw a stranger.

"I came back on Monday to start painting and this woman had already picked the locks. She came out of nowhere and there was a man with her. He told me to get out," Hale said.

The police arrived soon after, but they sided with Sakemeia. They tried to convince Loleta that she should show compassion to those less fortunate than her.

But the woman wouldn't agree, so she was handcuffed.



"When I see this woman walk into my mom's house and I'm in a police car, I know something is wrong. It's absurd," the woman who was arrested said.

The report says Hale carried out an illegal eviction and took Ms. Johnson's belongings. At one point, "she could clearly be heard saying, 'Get out before I get my gun.'"



The landlord insists she never had an agreement with Johnson.

Judge Latrevia Leites-Johnson ruled that Sakemeia was not a squatter because she was related to the partner of a tenant who had previously been evicted. And police said the landlord had not yet received a court-ordered possession order, which would have allowed her to legally evict the woman.



The incident highlights Georgia's squatting problem, with reported cases increasing from three in 2017 to 198 in 2023.

"It's crazy that people think they can take over someone else's home. It's just outrageous," Gov. Brian Kemp said.

This year, the governor signed a law making squatting a crime. It should speed up the process of evicting violators and allow property owners to seek compensation for damages.