Flash Shelton will be the first to tell you that he never imagined his life would evolve into this.
On any given day, he’s dressed in black tactical body armor, armed with pepper spray, a stun gun, a steel baton, a body cam and, occasionally, a Glock 26 pistol strapped to his side — with a cap bearing a brusque message: “Get Out.”
Those are all tools of the trade for a guy who says he regularly confronts people who are illegally occupying uninhabited homes.
His objective? To make the squatters understand that he is moving in and staying put until they leave.
Not surprisingly, the trespassers — whose eviction might normally involve up to a year’s worth of legal wrangling and tens of thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees for the homeowner — are often gone in hours, Shelton tells PEOPLE.
“It all started because I was trying to be a good son,” says Shelton, whose YouTube videos of his encounters have helped the 57-year-old longtime handyman and bouncer rise to internet fame, complete with a snappy name: The Squatter Hunter.
Broadly speaking, experts have said, squatting is a rare issue. But incidents like those spotlighted by Shelton have attracted more and more attention — from the public and from lawmakers.
“What I think is happening is that it’s just a good story,” Sateesh Nori, an adjunct New York University law professor, told The Washington Post in April.
“It’s quite horrible what’s happened to these homeowners — but I don’t think there is some kind of epidemic,” Nori said then.
Even if they’re numerically rare, the cases of squatting can be confounding for the property owners. Shelton says he has seen firsthand what it’s like to deal with them effectively.
Back in 2019 after the death of his father, his mother was trying to sell her then-vacant home in Northern California but was unable to because a group of people had moved in with all their belongings, he says. “The police told me that there was nothing they could do — it was a civil matter,” he recalls.
Flash Shelton
So Shelton spent a weekend learning everything he could about the expensive and often drawn-out process typically required to remove squatters from a residence and how he couldn’t legally just toss them off the property.
So that’s when he came up with the idea of having his mom write up a lease, which not only made him the official tenant of the property but also allowed him to legally enter her home.
Next, he made the 10-hour drive from his home in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley to his mom’s place and played detective, watching as the individuals came and went from the property.
Shelton — who possesses the quiet, no-nonsense demeanor of a man who doesn’t enjoy repeating himself — installed security cameras inside and outside the home. When one of the women returned, he confronted her, filming the encounter.
“I basically said, ‘Look, I have possession of this house now. You’ve got until the end of the day to get the stuff out. Whatever’s left is mine. I’ve put up cameras and an alarm system and I will prosecute you if you make an attempt to get back in the house,’ ” Shelton says now.
The group rented a truck and were cleared out by midnight, he says.
Four years later, when Shelton finally got around to posting footage from that encounter in 2023, the video quickly went viral and now has more than 6.3 million views.
Before long, other property owners — who were looking for another option besides hiring an attorney in an effort to remove squatters from their homes — began reaching out, asking for Shelton’s help, he says.
“I probably do three or four consultations over the phone a day,” Shelton says, adding that he averages three face-to-face “situations” with squatters across the country each month. “Some people say I’m doing godly work. Others say I’m doing the work of the devil.”
Shelton — who says he recently signed a production deal to transform his adventures into a TV show — spoke with PEOPLE about the problem of squatting, as he’s experienced it, along with the ins and outs of his newfound trade.
Flash Shelton
What sort of leg work do you do after a homeowner hires you?
A lot of times I don’t physically have to go the property. I get to know who the squatters are. I run backgrounds. I find out who their family is. I’ll put together a video [of the squatters entering and leaving the property], then I’ll talk to them about how I’m going to expose them on my YouTube channel.
And in some cases, if it’s somebody who is worried about being able to lease a property in the future or if they’re worried about their reputation on social media or about losing their job, then that’s all I have to do — and they leave.
And if that doesn’t work?
Then I start what I call the “lockout” phase, where myself and another guy do a stakeout. We wait and watch for them to leave the property, then we switch places with them and wait for them to return. We always notify law enforcement about what we’re doing. If that’s not effective, the next step is the “move-in” phase. That involves myself and another guy — some situations require us to bring in additional guys — and we move in.
That sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Approaching the squatters for the first time is pretty much the most intense part of what I do because I’m blindsiding them. All of a sudden I’m just moving in with them and they’re calling law enforcement thinking that I’m going to be told that I need to leave, but because I have a lease from the property owner I have a right to stay.
So far, knock on wood, it has never turned violent. I’m always 100% clear about who we are — squatter hunters.
What sort of, shall we say, communication skills do you employ when dealing with squatters and trying to convince them to vacate a property?
It varies depending on the situation. Deciding when I need to be intense or when my voice needs to be soothing is dictated by their reactions. If they’re intense and yelling at me, I’m not going to yell like I’m out of control. I’m stern. I’m going to raise my voice and I’m going to just talk to them like I’m their PE teacher or I’m their drill sergeant.
I was a baseball coach for 26 years and a business owner for 40 years. I used to train bouncers. The No. 1 rule of being a bouncer is you that you can’t take anything personal. Also, I’m used to being in control of my situations. So I will quickly take control of the situation, and it’s not going to be me just screaming and yelling because that’s not what somebody who is strong and in authority does.
I just stick to what I’m saying and repeat it over and over again. I go into every single situation expecting the worst and adapting to the best.
Flash Shelton
What happens next?
I’ll say, “Hey, let’s have a conversation. I just want to talk to you about what’s happening here.” And then I explain to them that we’re literally going to move in, that I’m going to occupy this space, and that we’re going to put cameras up everywhere but their bedroom and bathroom.
Then, depending on the situation, I just do what comes natural to me. [Whether] that means ransacking the kitchen cabinets or opening the fridge to ask, “Oh my gosh, what’s for dinner?” If, in certain situations, I can’t turn off the power, the gas or the water, I’ll disable things to where the gas is on but they’re still taking cold showers. I’m adaptable.
If the homeowner tells me that they’re trying to get their house back so that they can renovate it, then I know I can start knocking holes in walls. I can take a chainsaw and cut doors in half. I can pull kitchen cabinets down. I love it when the house doesn’t matter, because then I can turn their living space into a nightmare by starting the renovation before they [the squatters] move out.
How surprised are you that there’s TV interest based on your encounters with squatters?
I honestly had zero idea. I thought, “Ok, I’ll shoot a video of my interaction to protect myself.” Back then I had a YouTube channel called “Handyman Answers” and I thought maybe I’ll post it there. But I held onto it for four years and finally posted it in the beginning of 2023. I had no idea it would take off like it did, but I’m glad it did. And I’m glad that I’ve been able to bring awareness to this issue.
