IRON SPRINGS, Ariz. (CAP) - For Paul Thompson and his family, finding the 12 men holed up inside the attic of their Iron Springs home was only the beginning. And it shows no signs of ending.
"They wouldn't leave," said homeowner Paul from a motel room down the street from his house. "And when I asked them to get out, they held protests in my living room. It's my house!"
Paul contacted police numerous times, but said they expressed absolutely no interest in helping him with his situation. So he went to the media, and that's when the whole thing began to get out of hand.
People began picketing in the Thompson's front yard, arguing that the men had been in the house for so long that they should be considered residents and allowed to stay.
Others pointed out that the men should be allowed to stay because they did things like dishes, the laundry, and feed the dog - jobs no one in the Thompson family really wanted to do.
"Part of the problem is that we can't understand a word they're saying," said Paul's wife, Maura. "You'd think if they're going to come into our house, they'd make some effort to learn to communicate with us."
Despite being the ones who pay the homeowner's insurance and the property taxes, Paul and Maura said they feel forced into cohabitating with the people who broke into their house. For now, however, they remain in the motel, eating a la carte meals at the front desk and watching $2.99 movies on the room's movie channel.
"Sucks," said Paul out of earshot of his daughter. "What these guys are doing is illegal, but I can't get my government to do shit. Great friggin' country."
- CAP News Staff