Squatter who took over $2.3M Maryland mansion returns after short-lived jail stint

A 40-year-old squatter who was locked up for taking over a ritzy $2.3 million mansion in the Washington, DC, suburbs returned to the home after just over a week in jail, according to a report.

Tameika Goode, who was hit with trespassing and burglary charges last year for bedding down in the ritzy Bethesda, Maryland residence, was behind bars for less than two weeks in the months-long courtroom battle that has neighbors up in arms, the Baltimore Sun reported.

It took a 19-year-old next-door neighbor to blow the whistle on Goode’s squatting last year, the outlet said.

“Less than two weeks of being incarcerated, Tameika Goode is back in the house,” neighbor Ian Chen, a student at William & Mary College in Virginia, told the outlet.

It was Chen who called Montgomery County cops more than a year ago to report the intrusion.

The teen is now pushing state lawmakers to strengthen statutes to keep squatters in check.

“I feel they should be a lot more proactive,” Chen told WBFF-TV News last week. “I am honestly shocked this hasn’t been fixed 10, 20 years ago, and that this problem has been going on, especially recently, in every community across the state, whether it’s in rural counties in our western panhandle or suburban neighborhoods in Washington and Baltimore.”

The longer legal battle involving Goode remains ongoing.

“Get out of my face,” she snapped at a reporter during a break in recent court proceedings.

According to some reports, the squatter found her possessions piled up outside the home when she returned following her brief stint behind bars.

Her lawyer, Alex Webster, told the Baltimore Sun this month that Goode “did her research.”

“She found out that a certain property was under the control of a certain group — there was a title issue,” he told the outlet. “Due to the title issue, she was able to assume the property under squatter rights.

“It’s not a particular squatter right,” he added. “But there are rights known as squatter’s rights.”

The debate over squatters’ rights has hit home throughout the US, including in the Big Apple.

Earlier this month, Queens prosecutors charged a pair of alleged real estate scammers who stole the deeds of pricy homes in Kew Gardens Hills and Queens Village.

The DA’s office said the two are accused of falsifying records to rip off the elderly homeowners.

In 2024, a woman dubbed the “Range Rover squatter” for settling down in a $1 million home, was later convicted and sentenced to two years in state prison.