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A family is at odds with ‘professional squatter’ with a long criminal history who has taken over their dead mom’s house and refused to leave for the past six months.
Chicago resident Darthula Young revealed her family’s predicament this week, calling ex-convict Takito Murray a ‘professional’ scammer’ for taking up residence in her late mother’s Chatham home since September.
Explaining the increasingly common plight in a sitdown interview, Young said she became aware of Murray’s scheme days after her mom’s death, arriving at the senior’s longtime duplex to find a bullet hole in the front window.
Upon closer inspection, Young would soon realize that the locks to the two-story duplex that has been in her family for generations were changed as well.
Eventually, Young would realize Murray was the culprit, capitalizing on her mother’s death to overtake the home she had owned for more than 30 years.
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The two-story home in Chatham – seen here – has been illegally occupied since September
Ex-convict Takito Murray, a career criminal who has been cuffed for drug- and weapons-related offenses at least six times since 2017,illegally moved in September, and has since refused to leave
Speaking to CBS Chicago, Young says that since coming to that realization, police have remained unreceptive to her and her relatives ongoing struggle to remove Murray, telling her she will need to wait more than half a year for the crime ridden city’s court system to properly address the infraction.
‘It’s been a nightmare,’ Young said of the city’s hesitance to forcible relocate Murray, a career criminal who has been cuffed for drug- and weapons-related offenses at least six times since 2017, and was apparently shot inside the apartment at some point after moving in.
‘On September 23, I got a call from the neighbors to say there’s been a shooting in the building – and when I went to the building and put my key in, it didn’t work,’ Young told reporter Charlie De Mar on Thursday.
‘The person who had been shot in the apartment – this guy named Takito Murray – came back from the hospital, and informed us and the police that he now lived there, that he had rights.
‘He was professional squatter.’
Young would then reveal that, such is the case with most squatter-involved incidents, Illinois law largely prohibits her and her relatives to take any action against the unwelcome guest.
Darthula Young revealed her family’s predicament this week, calling an ex-convict who has taken up residence in her late mother’s house since September a ‘professional’ scammer
The home was left vacant by Young’s mother (seen here) after her death last year, the Chicago resident said
Laws in the notoriously progressive Prairie State currently bar her family from forcibly removing the tenant, or event turning off the two-flat home’s utilities until a proper court order is issued.
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Experts estimate that such an order could take as long as eight months, given a recent spate of crime that has persisted since the pandemic, and has in turn ensnared the city’s courts.
Officials, including progressive Mayor Lori Lightfoot, have promised to quell the crime epidemic, but have proven largely unsuccessful – despite a recent abrupt change in policy that saw her abandon plans to defund the city’s police force.
But crime is currently up nearly 50 percent from this time last year in the Windy City, and nearly 100 percent from 2021 – a year that was hailed as one of the city’s worst in decades.
Perhaps most pronounce is the still rising rate of theft and crimes committed by armed offenders, which has increased dramatically since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Experts estimate that such an order could take as long as eight months, given a recent spate of crime that has persisted since the pandemic, and has in turn ensnared the city’s courts
The city’s inability to address Young’s predicament comes as indicative of the city’s continued struggles, and serves as the latest blow to the embattled city’s dwindling image under Lightfoot, who since taking office in late 2019 has seen crime rocket to historical levels.
And with rents rising rapidly and homelessness also an issue, squatter cases are on the rise – chiefly due to the fact repeat offenders such as Murray know they can live rent-free for months.
That said, Young, who has hired a lawyer to help with her case as it wades its way through the city’s stretched court system, says that Murray has repeatedly told her that he plans to leave soon.
‘Every time I’ve been there, he tells me he’s leaving in two weeks. He’s leaving in two weeks. He just cannot find a place,’ she said.
CBS Chicago reportedly confronted Murray outside the residence earlier in the week, in an interaction that saw the ex-con shamelessly admit to overtaking the elderly woman’s home – claiming he was paying rent to one of Young’s siblings.
‘So you acknowledge that it was her mom’s building – that her mom owned it?’ reporter Charlie De Mar asked Murray of the supposed arrangement.
‘Yes, I guess I acknowledge – her mom and her siblings, that was their building,’ Murray reportedly replied.
Young, however, argues otherwise, saying that neither she nor any of her relatives have come to any such arrangement.
She adds that the city, apart from not being able to take immediate action against the squatter, has refused to shut off the water at the domicile, leaving Young responsible for a still-burgeoning $1,300 bill.
Young says that for the past seven months, she and her family has been trying to besiege the city to evict Murray, but has been repeatedly told to wait for an official order.
Michael Zink, a landlord-tenant attorney not involved with the case, told CBS that Young’s problem is not uncommon, and that evictions of squatters in overwhelmed cities like Chicago and New York can take up to eight months via the legal system.
‘The problem that police have is when they show up to a scene like that, they don’t know who is telling the truth,’ the lawyer explained.
He added that squatting in Chicago – where the average rent for a one-bedroom is more than $2,200 – is particularly on the rise, and that the courts will need time to catch up with a growing queue of offenders.
Earlier this month, squatters overtook another deceased woman’s home in Chatham – just blocks from Youngs’ mom’s house – and are said to still be living there illegally.
As for Young, she said she is set to be back in court in a couple of weeks – hopefully to resolve the issue.
