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SQUATTER SPOTTERS: Neighbors running into problems after homeowner's murder

Posted at 11:28 PM, Mar 01, 2017
and last updated 2017-03-02 02:28:24-05
Neighbors say a home on Salinez Circle, near Torrey Pines Drive and Tropicana Avenue, has been a problem for years, but things got worse after the owner was murdered.
 
Neighbors say they've called Las Vegas police and Clark County looking for help.
 
NV Energy even left a notice that it disconnected power that was on illegally.
 
Neighbors say none of that is keeping people out of the vacant home.
 
"I am terrified for my father," Steve Shoaff said.
 
You can see the broken windows, police markers and a car picked apart sitting behind a gate torn off the hinges at the home.
 
Shoaff say squatters have been coming in and out of the property for months.
 
"We have to worry about this all the time. People coming here, looking in seeing what is going on," Shoaff said.
 
Neighbors say things only got worse after the home's owner, Denis Katz, was found murdered in October.
 
"Almost immediately and it wasn't the squatters to begin with. It was everybody that knew him they were coming over here looking for something in this house," Shoaff said.
 
Police have been to the house a total of 14 times since Katz was found dead Oct. 5.
 
December was a busy month with officers giving one warning and making an arrest during six visits.
 
"They've come out here when we called them. They've gone above and beyond as far as I am concerned," Shoaff said.
 
There have been attempts to board up the doors, but the plywood covering the back door is lying on the ground, giving people easy access.
 
“It's their property, come out here and do what's right," Shoaff said.
 
With the owner dead, it is tough to figure out who is responsible for the home.
 
The only clue is a mortgage services company that has a sign up on the window.
 
13 Action News emailed and called the office, but didn't get a response.