The couple from R. Scott Moxley's story “The Real Squatters of OC” were arrested, and now comes word the upscale Newport Coast home they claimed as their own is headed for a foreclosure auction.
“The residence, at 10 Hidden Pass, is scheduled for a foreclosure auction
on Feb. 8. The default amount is listed at $2,602,252. The original
loan amount, taken out on June, 18, 2007, was for $2,095,000,” reports The Orange County Register. “The auction is set for noon in front of the Orange County courthouse at 700 W. Civic Center Dr. in Santa Ana.”
]
Moxley's cover story revealed how the tweaky married couple managed to get into the house that is not too far from Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant's estate and–more important–how they managed to stave off cops, neighbors and the apparently rightful owner to remain inside.
Christopher Wayne Duncan, 42, and Robin Ann Duncan, 36, admitted to Moxley, who snagged the interview after bringing the desperate couple food for their cat, that they had changed
the locks and put the utilities in their names, even though they did not
own the property nor did they have the owner's consent.
After his story was published, Moxley reported the couple had been arrested.
The Duncans were each charged with one felony count of conspiracy to commit
second-degree burglary, second-degree burglary and unauthorized entry of
a dwelling, according to the Orange County district attorney's office, which claims Chris Duncan used a fraudulent lease to get inside.
Picking up on something Moxley first reported, the DA's office also revealed Duncan had in the past searched out Southern California homes that were vacant and in foreclosure and moved in.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.