Florida Man May Be A Squatter But He Loves His Christmas Lights
Such a festive time of year, even for Florida Man who seems to like decorating the house. Even if he’s a squatter in a house doesn’t even belong to him.
The question is – who exactly DOES the house belong to?
FLORIDA MAN STRIKES AGAIN!
DATELINE – Plantation, Florida and the Saga of Florida Man and Florida Woman, Mark Hyatt and his, well, ex-wife, Kathy.
It seems that they were divorced, I guess, and he died three years ago. They used to – or maybe they were doing it up until recently – decorate their house big time.
I mean, we are talking Christmas to the max. The Griswolds on steroids. The house had so many decorations, it was referred to as the Hyatt Extreme Christmas House. Thousands of colored string lights. There were festive figures everywhere. Large, glowing lawn ornaments.
A lot of the neighbors loved it. Hey, let’s take the kids to see the Hyatt’s house!
Some of the neighbors weren’t exactly thrilled about it. There’s a bit of an eyesore sometimes with all that wattage going on.
Looking for the owner
But there was a problem. The Broward County property appraiser concluded that the Hyatt’s never actually owned the home. They’ve been doing this for 15 years and did not own the house.
There was never a title on the property, and the deed that they had was a forgery. So basically, the Hyatts were squatting and living at the house tax-free.
The appraiser’s office said back taxes against the property total almost $35,000.
Now, luckily for Kathy Hyatt, the statute of limitations for any criminal charges is up. However, local agencies are now working to determine who does own the house because somebody’s got to pay the back taxes of nearly $35,000.
I wonder who’s been paying the electrical bill all that time.