MILWAUKEE — A normal Tuesday morning at work turned panic-filled for Gladys Carroll-Weathersby.
"I had almost 60 calls and [neighbors] let me know that my house was on fire," Carroll-Weathersby said.
Her neighbors spotted smoke at the vacant property just feet away from Carroll-Weathersby's home on Milwaukee's north-side.
Thankfully, when she got to her house, firefighters had already put out the fire. But when she checked her security footage, she saw the flames were no accident.
A man in a red shirt is seen pouring gasoline along the side of the house next door. He then sets a fire along the back of the property and then another near the front porch.
Carrolll-Weathersby tells TMJ4 she recognized him right away.
"He was one of the ones that we put out of the house," she said.
Put out for illegally squatting in that vacant home for weeks.
"For him to come back and try to burn it and it being so close to my home—I was livid," Carroll-Weathersby told Mariam Mackar.
She tells Mackar squatters have taken over multiple vacant homes on her block over the years.
The issue has gotten so bad that neighbors have taken matters into their own hands by boarding up the homes themselves after police remove the squatters from the property.
Watch: Neighbor captures video of illegal squatter setting home on fire
Carroll-Weathersby tells Mackar one house on their street became vacant after its owner passed away last year. She and her neighbors assumed the people who showed up there were renters.
"We assumed that she was renting it out and chose some very bad tenants," she explained. "So, with the partying and the loud noise that they were causing, I reached out to her and asked if she would get new tenants."
That's when Caroll-Weathersby was told the house was vacant and its tenants were there illegally, and she and other neighbors called police for help.
Within three days the people were out of the home before coming back to retaliate.
"It's not fair at all," said Carroll-Weathersby. "I pay property taxes, they need to as well. They need to own their houses or be renting legally."
The man who set that fire still hasn't been caught and police tell TMJ4 they're seeking unknown suspects.
As Carroll-Weathersby waits for justice, she tells Mackar her and her neighbors will continue to fight to keep their homes safe.
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