Authorities in Arizona have brought multiple felony charges against a suspect accused of illegally moving into a dead man’s Cordes Lakes home and also selling the deceased individual’s SUV.
According to Fox News, the alleged squatter, identified as 45-year-old Michael Macinnis, falsified documents to make it seem he legally owned the unidentified dead man’s 2005 Chevy Tahoe, the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Macinnis was arrested on January 3.
Authorities said the suspect started squatting in the dead man’s home in May 2023. During the period of illegally staying in the home, the sheriff’s office said Macinnis allegedly doctored car documents “to make it appear he was the estate’s personal representative.” It was also alleged that Macinnis started squatting in the residence “some months” after the property’s legal owner passed away.
Besides resisting arrest on January 3, the sheriff’s office in the statement also alleged that Macinnis swallowed several fentanyl pills. The 45-year-old suspect was further accused of “slamming a metal door on a deputy’s wrist.”
“They were finally able to take him into custody and were told he had perhaps swallowed up to 40 fentanyl pills prior to his arrest, and then had purged his stomach of the drugs. Deputies say on the way to jail he was increasingly incoherent and drowsy, was administered NarCan by jail medical staff, and then taken by ambulance to the hospital,” the sheriff’s office said in the statement, adding that he was later discharged.
He faces nine felony charges including aggravated assault on law enforcement as well as forgery and fraud, Fox News reported. Reports indicate that the properties of legal homeowners who are away on long vacations are usually targeted by squatters. They also target homes that are put up for rent and properties owned by dead people.
As recently reported by Face2Face Africa, a Philadelphia homeowner claimed that he had to pay squatters $1,200 to vacate his property after they changed the locks and left it in disarray. Chris Harte said he purchased a home in northwest Philadelphia with the intention to renovate and resell it at a later date. But, things took a different twist when a neighbor reported hearing disturbances in the house on December 8.
When the issue was brought to the attention of the city officials after Harte’s real estate agent investigated the incident, they refused to intervene, according to Fox News.
