EXCLUSIVE: ‘Squatters’ Host Lays Bare Nightmare Moment Trespassers Took Over His Mom’s House—and How He Finally Got Them Out

“Squatters” star Flash Shelton has opened up about the nightmare moment that squatters took over his mother's vacant home after he moved her into his own property in the wake of his father's death.

The 59-year-old "Squatter Hunter" has spent the past seven years helping squatting victims free themselves and their homes from trespassers through a series of unique—yet entirely legal—methods. Now, he is bringing that business model to reality TV with the launch of his new A&E series, which premieres on May 12.

On the series, the professional squatter removal expert travels to homes where nonpaying tenants have settled without permission. Using unorthodox, yet legal, methods, Shelton and his team of specialists outsmart the squatter, take back possession of the property, and ultimately return control of the space to its rightful owner.

Shelton’s process, he reveals to Realtor.com®, was born from a harrowing experience he endured in 2019 when law enforcement was unable to assist in removing at least seven squatters who had take over his mother’s vacant house, which was up for sale in California's remote Del Norte County.

“Basically, my dad had passed away and I moved my mom in with me,” Shelton explains. With the home empty, he discovered there was a problem with squatters.

“I got notified that there was a U-Haul truck in the driveway asking if I rented her house out,” he continues. “A neighbor went over and saw that the back door was broken in, [so] I immediately called the sheriff.”

The response from the authorities was not what Shelton expected.

“The deputy calls me from the location and says, ‘Hey, I see the back door's broken in, but there's a house full of furniture, and you told me the house is vacant and being sold. It's a civil matter now.’”

The presence of personal furniture, Shelton learned, was enough evidence to create “reasonable doubt” for law enforcement to treat the situation as a civil dispute between a landlord and tenants rather than a criminal case.

“They knew that if they could get in that house with a bunch of furniture in a vacant home and show that there is reason to believe that they're living there, that law enforcement would be able to do nothing, that the law does not allow an officer to make a decision,” explains Shelton. “Any decision that is outside of the book of trespassing and breaking and entering is a civil matter.” 

Dumbfounded, but not defeated, Shelton was driven to learn all he could about the tenant and property laws that allowed these loopholes so that he could legally use them to help his mother.

“I was like, ‘I’m just trying to protect my mom,’ and I did a crash course on ‘What is a squatter? What is going on and what can I do about it?’ 

“I spent some time figuring out what I could do, talking to attorneys, talking to law enforcement friends, and created a system. [I] figured, if they could take a house, I could take a house.”

Armed with information, Shelton first signed a lease for his mother’s property to obtain legal access to her home.

“I got a lease from my mom because I had read that squatters sometimes have fake leases, so I wanted to be able to battle lease versus lease,” he says.

The next part of his plan involved gaining entry and maintaining possession.

“I drove 19 hours, I camped out waiting for the squatters to leave, and I found two women and five men pull out in three cars. I went in and secured the back door, put cameras up, and waited for them to come back,” details Shelton.

Once the squatters returned and Shelton made his presence known, they realized their time was up.

“I had them out in less than a day because I told them that it was my house now and I was living and moving in,” says Shelton. “It turned out, one of them was a prison guard up in Northern California.”

Following his success, the California-based anti-squatting advocate turned the terrible experience into a business. He founded Squatter Hunters, a service that operates with a broader mission to help property owners who are frustrated by the slow and complicated eviction process, to get squatters out safely and quickly.

Some of the unique tactics Shelton and his team use to put pressure on the squatter to leave mimic the behavior of a bad roommate. For example, once Shelton legally gets inside the space, he’ll speak through a megaphone, turn up the thermostat, start a construction project, install video surveillance in common areas, or even introduce the idea of a pet snake to make them uncomfortable.   

“Ultimately, I have to walk a line of what's legal, so I have to be careful. There's certain things that I can do to a point, but I can't cross the line,” he states. “Some of those are going to come across as funny, so it's entertaining for television, but they all have a reason. They all have a tactical reason.”

Because going head-to-head with a squatter could be unpredictable and dangerous, Shelton does not advise property owners to imitate his methods on their own. He points to the logistical skills he gained as a handyman as well as the de-escalation strategies he practiced while working as a bouncer at bars when he was in his 20s.

“I was kicking people out of bars, and now I'm kicking squatters out of homes,” says Shelton, noting his unique expertise to execute these interventions. “This is something that I literally was prepared for my whole life so I could go in and not be emotional about it, even though it was my mom [I was helping].”

Shelton has since taken on more than 100 cases across the nation, noting New York is “the most difficult state” to reclaim homes.

He points to a former piece of legislation that allowed squatters to seek tenant protections if they spent more than 30 consecutive days inside a home, which made it "very difficult" for any New Yorker to try to evict someone, even if they were occupying their home unlawfully.

While that law has since been amended as part of the fiscal year 2025 state budget—which made clear that "a tenant shall not include a squatter"—Shelton notes that New York remains a very tricky place in which to try to deal with trespassers.

Shelton is a big proponent of updating the laws that allow squatting situations to occur in the first place and changing the civil court system, which often takes years to resolve these conflicts.

“The system opens the door for them, literally,” he says. “One of the biggest problems is that there is a fine line to no line between squatters and tenants, so squatters are gaining tenant rights. What I would do is put a strong, hard line between who is a tenant and who is a squatter and not allow squatters to take over and assume tenant rights.

“The other thing I would do is change leases so that they would need to be notarized,” he adds. “I would change them to where they are like any other contract: They have an end date that doesn't create a civil process, and then if you enter it fraudulently, it's null and void.”

The “Squatters” star is also developing the National Squatter Tenant Registry website for homeowners and landlords to be able to vet and verify “that their proposed tenant has never been a non-paying tenant or squatter.”

In the meantime, Shelton recommends keeping an eye out for potential renters who exhibit certain red flags. 

“Unfortunately, homeowners are not only becoming victims of squatters, but they're becoming victims of tenants that become squatters,” says Shelton. 

“When you're going through the screening process nowadays, if somebody doesn't have a social media presence, I would consider that a red flag because you should be able to see everything about them. You should be able to be like, ‘Look, make your social media un-private and let me view who you are in real life,’” he suggests.

“And do not fall for a story,” he adds. “I had two squatters in the last year that I've dealt with. They claimed to be a pastor, and they are using that as a way to gain entrance to a home before any money exchanges.

“I don't care what their story is. Do not let them in your home until you have your solid lease signed, you have your payments, and you have all of the documentation that proves who they are.”

“Squatters” premieres on May 12 at 10 p.m. on A&E, with episodes available to stream the next day on the A&E app and aetv.com.