Neighbors Say Convicted Felon is Squatting in Harrisburg Home

HARRISBURG, NC — Residents in a quiet Harrisburg neighborhood are making some noise after they say someone moved into a foreclosed home, illegally, and that there is now a convicted felon squatting under that roof. The woman living in the house says she may have been scammed.

It’s a story that is becoming all too familiar in the Charlotte area.

Most of the residents in the Rocky River Plantation neighborhood in Harrisburg have been living there for years. They were surprised when someone moved into this home on Cherrys Ford Court.

The house had been sitting in foreclosure for some time. In fact, when a prospective buyer came out to look at it, he found a family inside. That brought out the Sheriff’s Department, but in the end only left more questions than answers.

The woman who moved into the house did not want to show her face on camera.

“We moved in,” said Sandra Elimmian. “I have a lease agreement and everything. Paid money for the, gave him a total of what, almost $3,000.”

She did show us her “lease”, and receipts for the money she says she paid in cash.

Nicholas Davis is the named landlord on the the document she showed me. Sandra says her fiance is the one who found the man who found them the house. And that fiance, one Sonny Lucas, is one of the reasons concerned neighbors asked WCCB Charlotte to look into this situation.

“Quite a history, as far as drugs, weapons, breaking and entering, forgery,” said one neighbor. “Just a whole bunch of stuff going back to 2001.”

We ran a check on Lucas’ record after finding his name on a Cabarrus County Sheriff’s incident report for the address from February 6th; the day after Sandra says she moved in. It shows a string of convictions and time served going back to 1989. Troubling stuff for a neighborhood filled with families and young children.

“The problem is, it’s determining if someone has authority to be on the property,” said Charlotte attorney Mark Gott. “And so you always have to go back to the owner of the property.”

In this case, mortgage lender Fannie Mae is the owner, not Nicholas Davis, and Fannie Mae’s representative tells us that the company is taking the necessary steps to evict the current squatters. Gott deals with real estate cases and says this is not an isolated incident.

“The problem has reached an epidemic proportion,” says Gott. “It’s going on all over Charlotte, all over North Carolina. They should be arrested as soon as this is brought to the attention of law enforcement. And so we always say, call 911 if you recognize a problem with your neighbors.”

As for the woman currently living in the house, and that questionable lease, she feels she’s the victim.

“It’s like I’m just on standby, because I don’t know which way to go,” says Sandra. “Because I’ve given this man my money for the property under the impression that I’m able to purchase the property.”

Gott tells me that it can take up to 30 days to get the eviction paperwork through the courts.

The charge most associated with squatting is trespassing, a class 2 misdemeanor. Gott describes the punishment for that offense as a slap on the wrist, and says squatters often return to the scene of the crime after being released by law enforcement.