Squatter ya gonna do?
An Australian woman has gone viral after posting a series of TikToks detailing how she discovered someone was living in her garage when she was moving out of her house.
“So we had someone living in our garage and we had no idea,” social media influencer Kate Dood said in the TikTok posted last month, which has 693,000 views.
“The only way we found out was because I was moving out of my house and they [her roommate] asked me to grab all of my stuff from the garage.”
Dood said she found this request odd since she never stored anything in the garage.
“I said there wasn’t any because I’m scared of spiders, which is definitely a legitimate reason to not put anything in there,” she said.
This spurred Dood and her then-roommate to investigate the situation.
“We went down there together to have a look to see what was going on,” said Kate. “Low and behold, someone was living there.”
According to the flummoxed homeowner, she had never seen the person occupying the space.
“We never saw the person in there at this time, but you can see their slippers under this couch that was already there, plus a sleeping bag and a bucket,” stated Dood. “Lots of other bits and bobs that pointed out to someone being there.”
Dood said that in addition to the slippers, there were outfits, shoes, a toothbrush and toothpaste and a DIY shower.
The roommates suspected that the person must have been living there for months.
According to Dood, she initially believed the whole situation to be a prank but decided to involve authorities.
“The police ended up locking the garage and putting a sign up to basically say, ‘Hey, you can come and grab your stuff but call us and we will do that,’” said Dood. “And, of course, that person was never going to call.”
And just as the matter seemed to be settled, the social media influencer said she caught a glimpse of her unwelcome guest.
“The next day we saw her pull the sign off the garage door and obviously storm away,” reported Dood.
According to the stunned Dood, the one thing that really stood out was how the squatter stranger dressed.
“Let me tell you, this woman was so incredibly dressed, so savvy – props to her for finding a place that was not getting used at all and using it,” admired Dood.
In a follow-up video, Dood showed photos of herself going through the squatter’s things the day that she and her roommate discovered them in 2016.
Several TikTokers were completely shocked by her wild story.
“The audacity she had though, to be mad that she was being kicked out,” commented one person.
“Why didn’t you leave her stuff outside of the garage,” questioned a second person.
“Lol, sounds like Anna Delvy,” joked a third person.
Other users were more worried about the anonymous woman’s fate.
“Gosh, I hope she’s doing alright,” said one worried user, while another simply stated, “That’s sad.”
“I hope she found another safe place to sleep at night.”