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Land O Lakes is a city in Florida that most of you only know as a brand of butter—honestly, as a Floridian, that's fine. It also happens to be the location for TikTok's newest favorite video that highlights just how Florida Florida can get sometimes.
Recently, Land O Lakes authorities got together to serve an eviction that didn't exactly go to plan. Somehow, two sheriff's deputies, a rental representative from Invitation Homes and a locksmith misread the address and they ended up tearing the locks off of the wrong house.
Oops.
TikToker Jennifer Michele (@jennifermichele82) shared what was caught on the doorbell camera on TikTok.
For those not familiar with the eviction process in Florida, you are served a three day notice so that you have time to gather belongings and go. Anything left behind after that time no longer belongs to you.
The property, and anything left in it, now belong to the owner.
If you have not returned keys, a locksmith is brought in to drill through the locks so that the door can be opened. The property is then emptied and the owner is free to do as they please with the property and anything that was left behind in it.
In this case, the locksmith, rental representative and deputies showed up to the wrong house and immediately got to work drilling out the locks without verifying the address, any of the paperwork, whether anyone was home, etc...
Invitation Homes, a large rental management company, has had plenty of complaints about improper handling of their properties and abuse of residents. And this story isn't likely to do their rep any favors.
Jennifer called them out specifically for their handling of the situation.
It was their rep who lead everyone to the home to serve this eviction. It was their rep who was so disconnected from the situation they didn't bother to double check paperwork and had clearly not been to the home before or he would know he was standing in front of the wrong house.
Jennifer has owned her home for over a decade. It's most definitely not an Invitation Homes property.
The house they were looking for was next door, but if she didn't have a Ring doorbell and hadn't been at her phone when the notifications came in, the raiding party wouldn't know that.
They had already drilled her lock to gain access. The next step would be to empty her entire home.
Everything would be removed: her furniture, her clothes, her dogs...
They were crated inside, but not all dogs are. What would have happened had a dog lunged at one of these men? Would a dog have been shot during this flub?
What if a teen had been home alone and grabbed a weapon to defend themselves? Would they have been hurt or possibly killed due to the incompetence and complete failure to verify anything before breaking in?
TikTok was terrified for her.
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Deputies did apologize and brought over some BBQ to make it up to her, but it fell to Invitation Homes to pay for the repair of the lock and re-secure the property.
It got done, and Jennifer is able to safely lock her home again.
As she explained though, she is very aware it could have been an entirely different story without her door camera and the ability to catch the mistake in real time.