When the couple retired to Clearwater four years ago, they moved into a little house on a big corner lot. Across from a Stop-N-Shop. Next to a police substation.

 

The two-bedroom home was supposed to be their slice of the Florida dream.

 

But soon, Anthony James Roy, and his wife, Irene Quarles, started seeing people hanging out in their yard, drinking and smoking weed. Strangers plugged their phones into outlets on the couple’s patio. They sat on their outdoor furniture, selling drugs.

 

The couple tried to make them leave. They complained to the police. When that didn’t work, they tried to build friendships, hoping they could charm the squatters into respecting their property. Sometimes, they hid in their house.

 

For three years, the tension built. Until one sweltering summer night in 2016.