Foreclosed Homesteading



Stacey Fuchs
(Lakeland, Florida)

A woman who read on the Internet that she had the right to move into a home that is under foreclosure learned the Sheriff's Office disagrees.

Stacey Ann Fuchs was arrested Tuesday and charged with grand theft of the house.

Deputies arrested Fuchs, 31, of Lakeland, after she changed the locks and moved into a South Lakeland home worth about $150,000 without the knowledge or permission from the woman who had surrendered it or the lender.

"You just can't move into someone else's legally owned property. That's trespassing, burglary, and theft," Sheriff Grady Judd said in a news release. "There is no such thing as a free lunch, and we are going to arrest people who try this scam to steal homes in Polk County."

It's called "adverse possession" and Fuchs saw it on the Internet, so in her mind it must be true. The authorities did not concur.

Fuchs was booked into custody at the Polk County Jail on charges of grand theft and burglary.