‘THIRD WORLD COUNTRY:’ Wyoming city taken over by squatters

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Squatters have taken over a Wyoming city, leaving $1 million worth of damage and 200 kilograms of human feces in their wake.

Bruce Knell, the mayor of Casper, detailed the destructive behaviour of about 200 homeless people who not only ravaged a vacant motel but created a “mess” throughout the city’s parks and streets.

“They destroyed everything,” Knell told Cowboy State Daily. “It’s horrible.”

Casper, the second-largest city in the state, has a population of 60,000, but things have been dicey ever since it has been overrun with homeless people who took over an abandoned Econo Lodge motel that hasn’t operated since November due to flooding and other abandoned properties.

The city had to condemn the motel and the bank that owns the building was forced to board it up to keep squatters out.

“It was inhabitable, and it was unsafe,” Knell said.

The squatters broke into the building and have left a sickening cleanup job involving the removal of  human feces for the city, not to mention the drug paraphernalia and the destruction of furnishings.

“It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen,” Knell told the outlet. “It’s third-world country stuff happening in Casper, Wyo.”

City officials are at a loss as to how to effectively deal with the growing numbers of vagrants, as fines and arrests have not changed anything.

“We know very well we cannot litigate our way or arrest our way out of the problem, but our police need some teeth to start dealing with the squatting,” Knell told the outlet.

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“They’re just causing so many problems,” he said. “In desperate times, people do desperate things, and unfortunately we’re the ones left having to deal with it.”

Knell noted many of the homeless are struggling with substance abuse or mental illness and don’t want to follow the rules or laws.

“There’s a certain part of the homeless population, whether substance abuse or mental illness, that is getting them to where they don’t want to conform to society’s rules,” Knell said.

“When they do that, they’re not allowed to go in the shelter, which means they’re just out and about in our community raising hell.”