# starting a squat



## SneakyPaws

Hey friends! 
So my roommates and I have about 15 days until we need to find, clean and inhabit a space.
The current plan is squatting, but none of us have ever started one,
We're out in Seattle, just curious if anyone has any tips, tricks, ideas
Any help would be super appreciated.
!!!


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## bob freaky

yeah, find a house that no one has lived in for a while and foreclosed. Maby make up some fake lease papers find out what bank or person owns the house. Pick the lock, low damage,so no breaking and entering charges you can say it was unlocked then change the lock. Then get mail sent there, get a lot of your things in there and turn on the electric water you can turn on with a wrench if locked cut the lock and replace it with the same brand of lock. Paint the house make it look better than it was mow the grass ect.. make friends with the neighbors chances are they would rather have the place looking nice and occupied. A government owned abandoned building works too but needs more work. But you could open a cafe,have concerts or movie theater if you have more space.


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## trenwren

I just picked up a 'zine at an A-bkfair last weekend called "Survival Without Rent." I'm living in a house right now, and I don't exactly need to know this stuff (although I may someday and, at the very least, it's an interesting read), so I don't really NEED it right now. So I could send it to you if you pm me with a mailing address (p.o. box or whatever). It's 54 pages long, and it seems pretty thorough.


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## ProfessorX

I would keep a low profile. Try to pick a building where you will not be noticed, or where people are used to homeless people walking around the neighborhood. The first thing you will need is a squat door. The best place to have this is at the back of the building. Try to disguise your squat door so it does not look like the building has been broken into. You might need to go through a chain link fence sometimes. If you cut a hole in the fence, put a new piece of fencing over the hole which can be move so it looks like the fence has been repaired. If the building has a working door try to go in through the window and get the door open. If the building is boarded try not to remove to many boards and put back boards when you can. You can also put boards on hinges so you can swing them open.


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## coolguyeagle76'

What happened to the cat haus?


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## WapatoGreyer

Oh hey Caitlyn (I still have no idea how to spell your name)! I logged in to try to look around for some ideas about housing and finding a name for our new community center and I saw this entry, and didn't realize it was you. And then I felt stupid. Yeah we need to find somewhere to lice  .. I mean live. Not lice. mehhh parasites


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## BanMatt

One does not simply just walk into Mordor...


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## WapatoGreyer

Our landlord is nuts -- assaulted Christopher with a rake when he was documenting her boarding up the skeleton house. She'd called the cops and they just laughed at her. Later when we were filing a report to them, they came (we hadn't asked them to but they did anyway) and put her in cuffs, and told us they'd had issues with her for 12 years and have had to mace her before. So that night we sent her an e-mail telling her we were moving out at the end of the month. Woooo. Actually, I'm excited to get our of here. It's been pretty stressful and everyone's looking forward to starting up a community center. It's just really cold here now and we don't know where we're going to live..


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## catingeorgia

anyone know how to start a squat in an industrial setting and beat the trespassing charges?


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## coolguyeagle76'

i love you all! come live with me in florida! the weathers better to winter up!


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## outskirts

ProfessorX said:


> You might need to go through a chain link fence sometimes. If you cut a hole in the fence, put a new piece of fencing over the hole which can be move so it looks like the fence has been repaired.


 Another good trick with chain link fences is to just cut the lower wires that hold the fencing to the poles.
Do it to about two poles, and only do the lower wires on the poles, no need to go more than half way up.
You'll then be able to just lift the chain link between the two poles and easily crawl or roll under the fence.
It's very low profile


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## Tiphareth

Hey, I know of a cool little spot in Seattle around Capitol Hill, I live in Capitol Hill (in an apartment this time around ;-) ) and I can probably go check it out. The main problems are no running water or electricity, but if you have candles and a flaslights it's pretty nice, two rooms, underground.

I want to check it out first because I left when it was still "chill" to squat there, the other person who stayed there with me made the mistake of inviting people he just met to party with him and the place got filled with junkies.

I'll PM you when I come back.


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## Gudj

1. Find Foreclosed home
2. Enter stealthy and change locks.
3. Move in, meet your neighbors and say you are the new renter.
4. Check often on the status of the foreclosure and see when it goes to auction and such.

...typed from my nice new house.


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## sons of vipers

This thread is relevant to my interests...


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## Heron

Gudj said:


> 1. Find Foreclosed home
> 2. Enter stealthy and change locks.
> 3. Move in, meet your neighbors and say you are the new renter.
> 4. Check often on the status of the foreclosure and see when it goes to auction and such.
> 
> ...typed from my nice new house.


 
high fucking five.


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## outskirts

Gudj said:


> 4. Check often on the status of the foreclosure and see when it goes to auction and such.


 
You have any tips on how to go about #4?


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## Gudj

Foreclosed Homes | ForeclosedHomes.com and check with the bank.


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## Wolfeyes

Damn that page is slow...

Round here, he have quite a few houses that are outright abandoned. Owned clean and clear, decided to sell by owner, moved elsewhere and just left the house to rot. They should be safe to squat in until the taxman comes around, and that can take years if they can't find the actual owner.


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## Lizzzzz

sounds legit. what about turning on water/electricity without having a bill sent? i've heard of people doing that with squats but i don't know how...


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## Gudj

Lizzzzz said:


> sounds legit. what about turning on water/electricity without having a bill sent? i've heard of people doing that with squats but i don't know how...


 
Water is usually as easy as opening the valve usually near the sidewalk infront of the house, but is illegal.
Electricity is a little more difficult and also illegal. I don't know the details on that as I pay for electricity.


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## TimMaschok

A friend and I revived Homes Not Jails San Francisco a couple of years back and started a website - http://www.homesnotjailssf.org. Under FAQ's there is a lot of information on how to start squats, and in Links there are a number of links to squatting related websites. Please let me know if you have any questions and I will be happy to answer them the best I can.


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## dprogram

I'm a former real estate agent who specialized in foreclosures. I like what Gudj said. Find any generic lease agreement online and you can even make an addendum that says in lieu of payment you are renovating the property. Get utilities on and make a few improvements. Nearly every bank will offer you what's called "Cash for Key's" to move out in 30 days rather than go through the very expensive eviction process. So even if you do get asked to leave you can get paid anywhere from $500-$2000 to simply move out. I know because I had to do this all the time and often thought the people there were lying about not squatting but still offered CFK's b/c either way it sucks to move. Seriously this would be the easiest and most legal way to squat without getting busted. You can even ask the real estate agent to give you more if it's a small amount like $500. I know b/c I did this when my landlord got foreclosed on while I was paying freaking rent. I got everyone in my building $1000. Good luck!


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## dprogram

If anyone has any questions on how to do this easily just ask. I'm not an agent anymore so I can't get in trouble for any advice rendered. =)


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## plagueship

well if anyone can make it to new england and wants to garden and swim check my thread in the 'projects' forum...


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## Storm Smokes Rocks

See i was living with a friend and her mom here in pittsburgh and her mom has decided she doesnt want me there anymore. As careless as i am about sleeping in alleys and shit ive planted this really cool record store job and i really dont want to just hop on a bus with my tail between my legs by giving this gig up. So thats why im asking advise on exactly how does one start there own squat? certain things like what to watch out for, locations that are not going to be suspecious, and just how would i go about doing all this. Or if anyone knows any squats between the city of dormont, or mt.lebanon PA, that would be greatly appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Beegod Santana

How do you start squatting? You start sleeping and living someplace you're not supposed to. If you need more advice there's this cool website called "squat the planet" where you can look through the "squatting and alternative housing" section for advice and experiences.

I love this notion people have that in every city in america there's Anarchists holding down multiple long term squats just looking for anyone with a black t-shirt and punk rawk hair to move in. Squats tend to be dirty, utility-free places that half the time are more trouble than just crashing out under a bridge. You wanna live this hipster vision of modern squatting, go to europe where there are actually laws protecting squatters.


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## acrata4ever

live at your work. i had a gf fill up the warehouse i was livin in with crackheads, so i would go sleep at work on the floor of the showroom. eventually i settled out with my landlord and the sherrifs dept came and got the crackheads out. theres been alot of times i had to sleep at work. this is why having a good work record and references is good. and no criminal history because then you can work your way up to shop foreman and can be trusted with the keys.


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## Earth

out here, actually just across the river - there's quite a few crumbuling industrial buildings which are available for 'cold storage' type uses. Cheap, and I mean CHEAP!! Crazy cheap... couple of friends got a big studio / practice space legally rented for like $240.00 a month - split at least 4 ways - and it works...

Another common thing right across from where I'm at is folks camp out on the river. It's seculded enough, and as long at they ain't littering there ain't no problems - especially since I am the caretaker of the waterways, a volunteer river clean-up and wildlife monitoring / rescue gig I do year round - so I'm actually sympathetic to those who choose to live in nature, again as long as they respect nature. Before the Maybrook (freight service) Line came to an end, this area was considered a major hobo's stop - because it was conveinant (places to squat, the river for washing, etc...) but once the developers came in, out went the rabble. Kinda like what happened tin the Lowe East Side on NYC once Rudi became mayor...
But my #1 piece of advice to you is this: make sure you ain't doing anything that's gonna bring down the heat on ya. Don't pollute or vandalize anywhere near your squat - no matter how cool it seems - it pisses of those who don't get it...
Find a good place, and act as if you belong there. Treat it as your home, maybe even fix things up / clean up the area if possible...
Good Luck !!


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## treatment

Find a house that looks like the owners are probably friendly. Then sit outside (across the street is bestest for security culture reasons) until they leave for work/grocery shopping/whatever just make sure nobody's home. Then go kick in the back door, change all the locks, hang a black flag from the flagpole, and if they try and get in just throw beer bottles and scream "SQUATTERS RIGHTS" at them.


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## acrata4ever

find an abandon place pretend you work there wear a green shirt, or a jumpsuit, clean up pick up trash. carry lots of realtor cards steal a snipe sign from the same realtor. put it out in the day. the police come knockin strap on your toolbelt and hand them the card act busy talk about how your sick to death of re-boarding the windows because of the crackheads breakin in. a uniform a real one not a black blockers commands respect. i wear keys on a yellow lanyard around my neck. no matter where i go people think i work there. i even have fun with it when people ask where they can find this or that in stores i say: HOW THE FUCK SHOULD I KNOW? then they get really fuckin mad WHATS YOUR NAME! IM REPORTING YOU TO YOUR SUPERVISOR! and i say: i really dont give a flyin fuck lady today is my last day as a stockboy. fun fun fun have fun.


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## Gudj

Search before posting.
http://squattheplanet.com/threads/starting-a-squat.6973/

There is a lot more information on the topic scattered around here. Look it up.


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## robbaked

It's going to be hard finding something around Dormont or Mt Lebo, but i've squatted in some places in the south side and around station square. Those aren't there anymore but if you search good enough it shouldn't be hard to find one in that area. My experience was the law was lax with it too.


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## Pheonix

you start a squat by hiring a real estate lawyer to file all required paperwork to start an adverse possession claim. then you look for a place to call home. when you find your million dollar mansion you break in and change the locks and move in. if and when they legally evict you you just look for a new mansion and move to your new home.


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## TheUndeadPhoenix

Storm Smokes Rocks said:


> how does one start there own squat? certain things like what to watch out for, locations that are not going to be suspecious, and just how would i go about doing all this.



Step one: Find Abandoned building
Step two: Watch said building for a week, see if there's any foot traffic in and out (sleeping by the door you wanna break into works good)
Step three: Find a door that's covered in some way (covered scaffold, ton of weeds, long enough corridor into it)
Step four: This is the MOST important step. Find a way to break in silently and cleanly. No boots to the doors, not rocks to the windows. Either pick the lock or break it.
Step five: Check to see if the roof is open. Sometimes I've found places with locked roofs. You should probably come back with blot cutters if its locked
Step six: Check for anything that would give signs of humans. Billboards, power to the building, etc.
Step seven: Find a way to lock the place off, at least your part, from the outside. When homebums find that shit, they're gonna try to steal your shut
Step eight: Throw down your pack where you wanna sleep
Step nine: Always. ALWAYS. Be on the look out for cops. At least for the first month. And make sure nobody sees you coming and going, unless its already a well established squat

I found a squat in West Hollywood, followed those principals and found a door that was unlocked, it was just blocked by a scissor gate. Broke the lock clasp. Turned out there was a billboard with power on it. A couple of us charged our phones on it. Was only there for a week til I bailed

I know Mount Leb is way south of me, but I know a couple places here in Wilkes Barre I wanna get into, including one that's already cracked

ALSO, to the guy above me, PA law says you must occupy the place for 21 years til you can claim adverse possession.

Oh, and clean the place up, cuz it probably has pigeon shit everywhere. I've seen squats where the cops actually applaud some of the guys for doing that and even give them money when they seen the spanging. PA isn't like that though. Spanging is supposed to be illegal, but I still got like $10 from cops in Philly. Not all at once though

Hope my ramblings help  Inbox me if you wanna know about these places here in north east PA


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## Storm Smokes Rocks

thanks that really does help me atleast get a better idea of what to look out for and everything


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## marc

if your plannin on staying there long term start getting mail sent to you as soon as possible and when you clean shit or fix stuff up take before and after pictures. if you have the money get the water or gas turned on for a month just so you have legit documents with your name and the address on it. and if the cops show up show them all that shit and theres a good chance you wont goto jail for trespassing. if they ask for your lease either tell them you cant find it or there was a oral agreement that as long as you fix the place up you can stay there rent free


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## TheUndeadPhoenix

Also, Paradise Squat in electric turned on. They hacked that shit


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## Storm Smokes Rocks

ya i mean honestly i dont know if it'd be permenent or not depending on whatever happens but id like to establish a place to crash atleast till the end of winter and could have some money saved up..maybe


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## TheUndeadPhoenix

If I were you, I would go to Cali. Pennsylvania sucks for spanging.


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## steviemack

..you can look up adverse possession for whichever state your in, i know each state has different laws on it, most are 10 years and you can wind up getting the title to the land or home.


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## TheUndeadPhoenix

steviemack said:


> ..you can look up adverse possession for whichever state your in, i know each state has different laws on it, most are 10 years and you can wind up getting the title to the land or home.



Yeah, most are 10 years, but some states like PA are douches. 21 years. Others I heard are 7. I think that's California. Its fucked up how diverse the laws are.


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## fr33rang3r

here's a link to a great easy to read discussion of the legal terminology involved. its specifically advice for property owners in the state of TN, but i would imagine many of the same concepts (color of title -v- no color of title, etc.) apply everywhere to one degree or another.

the interesting bit is that there are apparently 2 forms of adverse possession. if one possesses what appears to be a lawful title and is paying property tax, maintaining the place, etc., its only 7 years. but if you don't have this it would require 20 years and even then might not result in your favor.

thanks for the heads up on 'adverse possesssion' never woulda thunk to google a phrase i didn't know about before i read it here.

http://plsurvey.com/adverse.htm


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## Hobacalypse

C


Beegod Santana said:


> How do you start squatting? You start sleeping and living someplace you're not supposed to. If you need more advice there's this cool website called "squat the planet" where you can look through the "squatting and alternative housing" section for advice and experiences.
> 
> I love this notion people have that in every city in america there's Anarchists holding down multiple long term squats just looking for anyone with a black t-shirt and punk rawk hair to move in. Squats tend to be dirty, utility-free places that half the time are more trouble than just crashing out under a bridge. You wanna live this hipster vision of modern squatting, go to europe where there are actually laws protecting squatters.


Wouldn't have said it better myself, Tho it is a fun project to work on and gives more excitment then trollin' the bridges in every city you go to. Try just setting up some really nice Hidden backwoods campsites, Or *cough Cough* FuckN' Treehouse forts shit damn kids, That i think would be the prime setup ya know, FuckN treehouses hidden throughout the states with regular tennants or passerby's so there is no vandalism other then our own. Got a little solar panel and a car battery, Bam Music fuckN' treehouse punk shows foo'

Squatting aint just pissin in your girlfriends sleepingbag after passin out in a dirty room full of rigs that you call home.


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## fr33rang3r

Hobacalypse said:


> C
> 
> Wouldn't have said it better myself, Tho it is a fun project to work on and gives more excitment then trollin' the bridges in every city you go to. Try just setting up some really nice Hidden backwoods campsites, Or *cough Cough* FuckN' Treehouse forts shit damn kids, That i think would be the prime setup ya know, FuckN treehouses hidden throughout the states with regular tennants or passerby's so there is no vandalism other then our own. Got a little solar panel and a car battery, Bam Music fuckN' treehouse punk shows foo'
> 
> Squatting aint just pissin in your girlfriends sleepingbag after passin out in a dirty room full of rigs that you call home.



fuk ya! i want a treehouse revolution, now!


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## Storm Smokes Rocks

haha yea your telling me i just figure that cali is seriously sooo overrated and so many people go there so i figure id make more here then i could out there because of that but i still wanna go someday soon


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## thievelandohio

trenwren said:


> I just picked up a 'zine at an A-bkfair last weekend called "Survival Without Rent." I'm living in a house right now, and I don't exactly need to know this stuff (although I may someday and, at the very least, it's an interesting read), so I don't really NEED it right now. So I could send it to you if you pm me with a mailing address (p.o. box or whatever). It's 54 pages long, and it seems pretty thorough.


This zine is maaaad helpful, i've somehow collected 4 copies of it over the years, if anybody wants a copy throw me a pm


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## zazou

thievelandohio said:


> This zine is maaaad helpful, i've somehow collected 4 copies of it over the years, if anybody wants a copy throw me a pm



found a pdf online its just missing the illustrations http://archiv.squat.net/squatbook2/index.pdf


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## Hillbilly Castro

zazou said:


> found a pdf online its just missing the illustrations http://archiv.squat.net/squatbook2/index.pdf


hell yeah, there we go. thanks


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## dprogram

That was a good read


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## moopy

The Color of Title requirement is really odd, though it's cool (and surprising) that ignorance to the legitimacy of a legal document is actually_ defended_ by the law, especially for something like eventual ownership of property. On the downside, though, the Continuous Use property really blows, especially since it resets if you break your consecutive stream of time squatting the property you want. It'd still function as a ball-and-chain in that sense, which I think would undermine the point of someone wanting to start a squat in the first place (not the _whole _point, though, if nothing but a fuck load of your time gets invested into it, but I can't imagine seeing someone spending 10+ years in a row in a place and not investing some decent amount of money into it.) Perpetual debt wouldn't be an issue though until property taxes come into play, so hey there's that.

I dunno. The way I see it you'd want to try to do that either if a.) you are absolutely committed to settling down or b.) you have a twin that you could swap places and identities with so you could fool the city/state into thinking that you actually have been staying put for the required amount of time while still getting your train hopping fun time on behind their backs. Sneaky sneaky!


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## AoT

Adverse possession in CA is 5 years.


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## AnthraxMatt

easiest place to find answers about this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squatters_rights

AND...



BanMatt said:


> One does not simply just walk into Mordor...


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## Goodnight

outskirts said:


> You have any tips on how to go about #4?


Basically check and see if the house is up for auction

Edit go to the city or county website and see when the auction is for foreclosures. If its listed it may get auctioned.


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## Sleyeborg

Gudj said:


> Water is usually as easy as opening the valve usually near the sidewalk infront of the house, but is illegal.
> Electricity is a little more difficult and also illegal. I don't know the details on that as I pay for electricity.


for electric you can either het a generator from harbor fre8ght or solar panels. to turn on mains you gotta call the electric co and they run a non intrusive checkup. might be snitches though. the key to a good squat is cool neighbors. if your neighbors are your friends youre good.


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## Anthorhitchhiker77

coolguyeagle76' said:


> i love you all! come live with me in florida! the weathers better to winter up!


You got a commune


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