SAN DIEGO - Authorities removed dozens of people who were living in the backyard of a Pacific Beach home and seized control of the property.
Pacific Beach residents Mike and Lisa Perry moved to the area nine years ago hoping to spend their retirement in a cozy condo near the beach.
However, they had no idea what they were in for.
The couple told 10News of the "horrible" conditions at the house two doors away, saying 20 to 30 people turned the home's backyard into a tented slum.
Mike Perry said the people living at the home weren't considered good neighbors.
"I found two women sitting in front of our garage smoking what looked like was crack or meth," he said.
He added, "They were pooing and peeing on our property … We would see them taking showers with houses [from the living room]."
Perry told 10News he called police regularly, and police were just as frustrated with the situation as Perry and the other nearby residents.
In April, San Diego City Councilwoman Lori Zapz got involved, and soon city Code Enforcement and the City Attorney's Office were hammering out a legal way to take over the mess both inside and out.
"It was like Christmas. It was just … it was amazing," said Perry. "Couple of days later, we went out to walk the dog and there was a giant Dumpster in the front yard and we heard the people throwing the stuff into the Dumpster. It was unbelievable."
Even after several Dumpsters worth of items were hauled away, old mattresses, appliances and other junk still litter the yard.
But for the Perrys and their neighbors, that won't last too long.
10News learned the owner of the property does not live there, but two of her sons did.
City officials said the sons were the ones who allowed the squatters to move in and make the neighbors' lives miserable.
