# The Dangers of Squatting



## Turtles

Ok so this is what my old roomate posted.


Another cold day here in Philadelphia, bored off my ass once again sitting in a coffee shop on Walnut St. Last night or yesterday (whatever) the "squat" got ransacked by some ruthless muscle heads who didn't like squatters (and honestly, who does?) I luckily avoided the blood bath that was to ensure and somewhat occured, my friend Turtles go a rude awakening by two dudes that said they were the owners of the house.. Instead of calling the police they took matters into their own hands and beat this piss out of my friend/roomate. 
From what he told me they beat him with part of a wooden dresser until the board broke, he had blood all inside his ear when I saw him and an impressive bump on his noggin. When I arrived home latter that night the place was boarded up and I went next door to ask what happend with the place and the kids told me they beat up Turtles and waited all day long for me too get home to recieve an even worse beating. 


I'm turtles all i can really say is be careful. I'm still pritty beat up and may have a broken rib. So if you gunna squat do it with like atleast 5 people and make sure theres no less then 2 or 3 people there at a time.


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## bote

shitty mitten.


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## finn

Hope you're feeling better.


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## jabbyscabby

make some booby traps ha.... no on a serious note, i like to always have one person up and switch shifts...cuz it sucks when you wake up to your shit gone or a gun pointed at your head!!!


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## Ravie

uhhh yeah thats why if im not sure the place is secure and that i have some buddies with me i find me a nice field.


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## maus

holy fuck.

man, it would sure be too bad if anything happened to those ruthless motherfuckers' house now that youre not living there anymore.


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## katiehabits

i always feel uncomfortable in empty houses alone too especially cuz i'm female. i had to sleep alone in this house we had in van once & there where junkies upstairs cooking up their shit in the kitchen. i locked the downstairs door & slept in the room with a lock on the door & bars on the window. i hardly got any sleep that night.


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## Angela

My dog works really well as an alarm. He's not yappy but he will let me know in a hurry if someone's trying to come into a place were sleeping at night. And he's very possessive of his personal space. He kept someone from coming through a window a year or so ago at a place we were staying. Usually I don't like to squat in the cities though because of the risk and because I like to stay solo. I've also got this extra-large can of pepper spray if anyone gets past the dog.


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## Geoff

used to have a knife on my person in my old squat and a baseball bat by the bed. There were only two of us staying there at the time but I never felt too unsafe. And i have a dog now so i have an alarm.


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## Turtles

what sucks is i lost my walet and like half my shit kuz they caught me off guard and weren't about to let me keep my stuff i had a smiley and a knife but i didnt grab eather when i got up kuz i wasnt sure who it was we knew the kids that rented the house next door and i was thinkin it might of been them but i was very wrong but now im slightly healed up and hoping my friends from next door can get my shit back hopefuly next time ill remeber to be more careful


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## 614 crust

Never had that happen but I have woken up to the pigs and the fire department kicking the door in.


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## Ravie

the worse i ever got was scared shitless by a friend trying to pry the door open to come give us a wake n bake...


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## Dirty Rig

Shit man, I remember when this went down. Me and Korey were in the flophouse next door smoking a blunt, and heard all the fucking ruckus through the wall. Korey busted out the machete and ran into the street to see what was going down. When we got outside, there were like 5 dudes standing outside the squat with bats and gats. I went into the squat from the backdoor, but no one was there. I never did get a chance to ask where you escaped to. Did you go to Jess and Dugan's? We never even saw Kevin after that.


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## rideitlikeyoustoleit

Holy shit, sorry to hear this. Hope your okay!


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## pillowtron

damn man, feel better.


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## Turtles

a little update i got all my shit back from there about a month ago all i had to do was kick in the front door it worked out very well


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## Loaf

Try 100 British Riot Police with bruised egos. You lot should carry around some heavy duty locks with ya! Good to hear you got your shit back and you made it out alive. Helps to know about the owner first sometimes I guess.


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## moe

damns.


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## Ravie

ugh... i couldnt imagine waking up to base ball bats or pissed off cops. I'm very under the radar when i sleep.


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## Loaf

Worst bit was I had not slept in 2 days and I finally got to bed for an hour!


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## Ravie

i would have been pissed off...i dont do the no sleep thing.


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## Matt Derrick

wow. thats totally fucked up and waaay beyond the line if you ask me. if this had happened to me, i would have burned the place to the fucking ground. im totally not joking when i say this. fuck those people. if your friends house was too close and might get burned, id find some other fucked up way to fuck that house over... buckets of termites, buckets of chum, whatever it took to make sure that house wouldnt be used ever again. landlords like that should be shot.


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## Dillinger

maus said:


> holy fuck.
> 
> man, it would sure be too bad if anything happened to those ruthless motherfuckers' house now that youre not living there anymore.



second.


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## stove

oh man, if anyone has any need for demo work, let me KNOW. I've been totally bugging to blow something up lately.


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## finn

I'd find it funny if someone ran some hose in there/wrecked the roof and caused some major water damage. It's getting a bit too dry to play with fire.


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## Turtles

haha this is radiculus everyones now like


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## rellydelly890

that is just too much. I could never have my ass kicked like that. I'm skinny! I would die!


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## stove

Finn: You're much too pacificst! Water damage? Sure, like Katrina. I'm thinking of something mixed with sugar, forming a perchlorate, which would be amazing to ignite on the first floor...


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## finn

Pacifist? Hardly, it's just that a lot of the houses in Philly are rowhouse types.


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## Dirty Rig

The house Turtles is talking about was a rowhouse. Our friends lived in the adjacent apartment, so a fire wouldn't be too smart. However, there are plenty of ways to make the interior absolutely unlivable ever again...


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## Mouse

cat pee?


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## Dirty Rig

ex_actly_


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## Turtles

haha oh dirty rig so much fun there so meny drugs hahahahahahahahaha


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## Dirty Rig

Hahaha oh, memories!


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## Toxic*Flood*Brew

ah dog and a smiley usually work just as well my dog has gotten me outta a lot of fights and stabbings


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## Toxic*Flood*Brew

was that in west philly? after the whole guy off roof deal ppl in that neighborhood have been running kids outta there..


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## Turtles

no south philly there was only 2 of us living there


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## rabidpossum

the squat we found in providence i've only slept in once so far, mainly cause we knew it had been a spot for crackheads and junkies to do their shit in. while hanging out in there one afternoon, 3 of us were on the second floor just having a few beers. we always locked the only door to the place too, but there's a shitty fire escape (it's a ladder like 7 feet off the ground to a small "porch" outside the window of the room on the second floor where we were chillin). someone who obviously noticed the locked door climbed up and looked in and saw us. we heard him say "holy shit theres people here" to someone else we couldnt see, then they were gone.

that kinda shit makes me sketchy about trying to make this place is sweet home for me in providence. i don't wanna hafta sleep with my knife ready over some spot. granted, maybe it was "their spot" first. really, i'm hoping to maybe even meet some of the people who've used the place in the past and figure something out. who knows.


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## Turtles

start bording up the windows and change the locks


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## rabidpossum

yeah hafta get on those locks.


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## oldmanLee

Regarding trashing a place: a handsaw.Almost all doorways on rowhouse construction are load bearing.Cutting out a foot of frame on either side of a doorway(start on the top floor) renders the entire structure unstable and compleatly unlivable,as well as subject to a immediate condemnation notice from the locals.Amazing what you learn doing reno work on old hoses,isn't it?


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## hartage

Hmm..... this is making my mind think of the possibilities....... I have a twisted idea. Get a couple of your friends with camcorders and cell phones to hide somewhere and film everything. Get yourself found by them and beat-up just make sure your friends get it all on film. Use more than one camera just in case. While you are getting beat have the friends call 911 and report someone waving a gun around. That gets the cops there faster than just a beat-up. When they get there swear up and down from a distance it looked like they had a gun. Anyways, you have it on tape now and a police report. Go to the hospital and rack up some bills to show damages. Sue the crap out of the landowner that beat you up. Since it is a criminal act you can ask for punitive damages which is 10 times actual damages. So lets say your hospital bill is 5k (easy, just for being brought to er) then you can be awarded pain and suffering with the hospital bill let's say the jury awards you 10k. Punitive damage award is on top of that and can be 10x the actual damages. Which means you can be awarded 110k from getting beat up. You could own that property he beat you up on. Wouldn't that be ironic ?

Ahem, as a disclaimer I present this idea to you as an idea in jest and in no way is suggesting actually doing this. Nor do I guarantee that it will happen as the idea is laid out.


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## genghis braun

wouldn't the fact that he's trespassing make it harder to sue, though? not saying that someone should do this-I'm just interested in the way the law works when it comes to shit like this.


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## genghis braun

but, yeah, either way trash the fucking place.


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## hartage

genghis braun said:


> wouldn't the fact that he's trespassing make it harder to sue, though? not saying that someone should do this-I'm just interested in the way the law works when it comes to shit like this.



NOPE, won't make a difference at all. Sure he might get popped for trespassing so what ? 5hrs community service and it's over. This is valid in most states. If a burglar steps into your house and slips on a skateboard left on the floor in the dark and breaks his arm/leg he can sue you and win. It's been done before, it's one of the first things you learn in the most basic law courses even business law. The property owner has responsibility to provide a safe environment to ANYBODY on his premises even to burglars. So two grown men beating the tar out of ONE person that was not being aggressive and is not even fighting back. Catch that on tape and not only will those two adults be thrown in jail. You can rape them in civil court and maybe come out owning that house. Much like Rodney king and his beating. Sure he ran from the police, sure he's a criminal. Sure usually cops get away with doing exactly the same thing hundreds of times before. But catch it on tape and that changes EVERYTHING.


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