Homeowners are facing off with thousands of squatters invading their houses across the nation, leading to a rise in standoffs between property owners and criminals.

When she called the police and arrived with a local television news crew, the squatters refused to leave. She brought a locksmith to change the doors’ locks, but police warned her that she could be arrested for changing locks due to the state law that does not allow the turning off of utilities, changing of locks, or removing the property of a person who claims to be a tenant.

“I may end up in handcuffs today if a man shows up here and says I have illegally evicted him,” Andaloro said to the news crew.

She was arrested on charges of locking out squatters from her $1 million home in Queens.

In another New York situation, 52-year-old Nadia Vitel was brutally murdered after two teenage squatters, Halley Tejada and Kensly Alston, allegedly beat her to death when she discovered them in her late mother’s New York City apartment. When Vitel’s family did not hear from her for several days, her son found her body in a duffel bag in the front closet. The suspects were later arrested in Pennsylvania when they were involved in a car crash while driving the victim’s car.

In Washington state, local Sikh Jaskaran Singh’s home became occupied by a squatter who refused to pay. The homeowner has been barred from his $2 million home. Neighbors have risen up to protest the squatting.

In Atlanta, neighborhoods have been invaded by squatters snatching up an estimated 1,200 homes, according to the National Rental Home Council trade group. Courts are backlogged and police are overwhelmed with the problem in Atlanta.

“A thousand is crazy,” popular podcaster Joe Rogan said, “That means they know how to do it, and they know the loophole, and you need to tighten that loophole up.”

Also in Georgia, an active-duty Army officer, Lt. Col. Dahlia Daure, had put her home up for sale while away on active duty in Chicago. She returned to her home to discover that she couldn’t get a squatter evicted.

“That was quite alarming to find out that someone else had moved into my home,” Daure said.

The soldier was told by police that they couldn’t do anything with her “civil matter,” but she eventually discovered a landlord tenant law under Georgia Title 44 to convince the police to arrest the squatter for guns and drugs at the home.

In California, squatters took over a Beverly Hills mansion a block from basketball star LeBron James’s residence. Actor Morgan Gargiulo had a squatter standoff with the mansion’s owner and police, claiming he had a lease. He held parties at the home five evenings a week, charging admission fees from $500 to $1,500. Gargiulo and his friends eventually struck a deal with the current owner to leave in February after legal pressure.

While squatting is illegal in California, adverse possession can be claimed over a property after five years of uninterrupted occupancy.

Not all squatters are finding luck in their possession of homes. A “Squatter Squad” is actively removing squatters from homes in California.

In Florida, lawmakers passed House Bill 621 this month to authorize homeowners to request police action to remove squatters, resulting in the squatters facing criminal charges.

A Florida man in Ocala discovered a squatter was staying in his house. He waited in his closet for the squatter to come back to his house and jumped up with his pistol, yelling at the man to get out of his house. When the squatter refused to leave, he fired a shot into the floor. The squatter called the police on the homeowner and then got arrested on trespassing and possession of drugs charges.

Popular podcaster Tim Pool warned that the trend of stealing houses is going to lead to consequences for squatters.

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“When two guys show up and knock on your door and say, ‘We’re gonna tell you one time you need to leave.’ That’s all they are going to say. Not going to say anything else. And what happens next? These squatters will wake up in the middle of the night with a tap on their shoulder, and as soon as they open their eyes, there’s going to be two or three guys in ski masks. And one guy is just going to rain a crowbar down on his kneecap. Smack!” Pool said.

He added, “And then the squatter is going to scream and they are going to say you’ve been warned and they are going to leave. And when the cops show up, if they show up, the neighbors are all going to say, ‘We didn’t see anything.’ That’s where we are heading because of the laws they’re passing because the police are defending the criminals.”