A squatter offered to repay a property owner for the gas and electricity he used after illegally living on her property for weeks. But instead of ponying up some cash, he wanted to reimburse her through a date.
“The squatter was flirting with me,” Lia Hatzakis, 29, told Fox News. “Asking to take me out on a date, asking to buy me dinner because he said it would make up for the energy that he used at the property.”
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Hatzakis and her fiancé Achillea “AK” Kyriakou are YouTubers who have been documenting a situation with a squatter who moved into a former nursing home they purchased to renovate.
The couple said they left their phone number for the squatter, who identified himself as “Michael,” so they could arrange returning his belongings after they locked him out of the property in January.
In videos of a few phone calls, Michael is heard complaining about being locked out and asserting his right to be in the property.
Achillea Kyriakou and Lia Hatzakis bought a former nursing home to turn it into affordable housing. (Courtesy of Achillea Kyriakou and Lia Hatzakis)
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“Just so you know, I’m not doing anything wrong,” he says in one call. “I’ve done it the right way.”
“That’s right, doing crime the right way, not the wrong way,” Hatzakis replied sarcastically. “Fantastic.”
In another phone call, Michael attempts to make a move on Hatzakis.
“I’d take you out for a meal afterwards for your electric,” he tells her. “A meal and a nice bottle of wine.”
A note from Michael, a squatter who took over Achillea Kyriakou and Lia Hatzakis’s investment property. (Courtesy of Achillea Kyriakou and Lia Hatzakis)
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He also tells Hatzakis that if she saw him, she wouldn’t know he was a squatter.
“When you see me Lia, you’ll go ‘he’s got nice eyes,’” he says. “Don’t fall for them.”
Michael also asks Hatzakis, who is engaged, if she is married.
“Go on, will you put the phone down?” Michael said. “Cook him a meal.”
Before hanging up, Michael left Hatzakis with a final comment that literally made her jaw drop.
“I’ll think about you tomorrow,” he said. “Sweet dreams. Sweet dreams. And wet ones too.”
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Hatzakis told Fox News that at first she found the interaction humorous, but then it started to make her very uncomfortable.
Achillea Kyriakou and Lia Hatzakis hoped to turn the former nursing home they purchased into a rental property. Michael the squatter gummed up their plans. (Courtesy of Achillea Kyriakou and Lia Hatzakis)
“The more he did it, I was just shocked and lost for words,” she said. “I didn’t know what to say.”
She added that her fiancé also thought it was funny but then got fed up with it.
“He was an interesting chap,” Kyriakou told Fox News. “He kept on calling so many times.”
“I felt like he thought it was like a dating site,” he added. “It got a bit weird.”
“I thought this whole situation with a squatter was going to mean that we’d have to call off our wedding because it’s going to be so expensive to start getting the court order to remove him,” Lia Hatzakis told Fox News. (Courtesy of Achillea Kyriakou and Lia Hatzakis)
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After the couple traveled to the property and removed his belongings, Hatzakis blocked Michael’s number from her phone.
The duo said they further secured the property to avoid more squatters and are assessing damages that Michael left behind, including pipes stolen and a fire alarm system destroyed.
Click here to learn more about Michael the squatter.
