A squatter has been busted for taking over Dan Le Batard’s Florida home — which the prominent sports journalist called “a violation.”
Colombian national Diego Alejandro Escobar Ortega, 37, was filmed being handcuffed late Wednesday outside of Le Batard’s house in Miami Shores, according to a police report obtained by WPLG.
He claimed he’d owned the house for decades, even as he admitted he’d been climbing in and out through the windows, the video shows.
Le Batard revealed on his radio show that the trespasser was busted after a bed and “full television” were found in an empty upstairs room that had been locked from the inside.
“Can you guys tell me how I’m supposed to feel about this? ” he asked his co-hosts.
“It felt like a violation.”
The sportswriter said his suspicions were first raised days earlier after he found a bunch of doorknobs in a drawer, which he suspects the squatter bought to change the locks on his house.
“That squatter was preparing to fully occupy my house, to have everything in there… so that when I got there and said, ‘It’s my house,’ he could spend months there litigating for free.”
Le Batard explained he and his wife had been building the Miami Shores house for years and had been using it as an Airbnb or workspace in the interim. But lately they began to notice things in the house had been moved after nobody they knew had been there.
Police were called to the home on Wednesday afternoon when Le Batard’s assistant reported seeing things that were not theirs, as well as a locked upstairs room, which was “unusual.”
Officers searched the house and did not find anyone, but discovered “clothing, a makeshift bed, food in the refrigerator, and other miscellaneous personal items,” according to the police report.
Escobar Ortega pulled into the driveway in a gray sedan while officers were still in the house.
He showed up “coming through a window,” Le Batard said — saying that cops wouldn’t have been able to arrest him had he been inside because of squatters’ rights.
The Colombian national told police several times he owned the house for 20 to 30 years — even after an officer told him the home was sold in 2020, body cam footage of the arrest shows.
He claimed he had only been going in and out of the house through windows because he didn’t have keys.
Escobar Ortega was charged with burglary of an occupied dwelling after he was unable to show proof that he owned the home or had permission to be there, authorities said.
He was booked at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center where he is being held on a $7,500 bond.
He was also ordered to stay away from Le Batard’s property.
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