Squatter arrested at Miami Shores home of Dan Le Batard and wife, police say
Unusual items sprawled around the home of well-known sports commentator Dan Le Batard and his wife led to the discovery of a Weston man illegally living inside , police say.
Diego Alejandro Escobar Ortega, 37, is now facing a charge of burglary of an unoccupied dwelling. He was released from the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $7,500 bond Friday.
Around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Miami Shores police officers were called to the home, whose listed owner is Valerie Le Batard. A woman who works for Valerie said she noticed belongings that didn’t belong to her employer, an arrest report read.
The woman also found a bedroom door locked that usually is not. At her direction, the officers swept the home and found no one.
However, they did find a makeshift bed, food in a refrigerator and other personal items, the report read. A locksmith was called to change the locks.
As the officers were preparing to leave, they noticed a silver sedan pull into the driveway, with Escobar Ortega behind the wheel. Police said he called himself the owner of the home but informed them that he gets inside through the window.
Escobar Ortega did not have any proof of ownership or permission to be in the home, the report said. Upon questioning, officers said he told them he started moving in about two days prior and did not have any keys.
Valerie Le Batard told officers she had no idea who he was and never gave him access to her home.
On Friday, Dan spoke about the squatting situation on his podcast, “The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz.” He called it “a violation,” the New York Post reported.
“Can you guys tell me how I’m supposed to feel about this? ” he said. “It felt like a violation.”
He shared that the home was in the process of being built and was being used as an Airbnb and workspace. However, recently, he noticed doorknobs in a drawer and was suspecting a squatter was trying to change the locks.
“That squatter was preparing to fully occupy my house, to have everything in there … so that when I got there and said, ‘It’s my house,’ he could spend months there litigating for free,” he said.
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