An abandoned $10 million mansion in the Hollywood Hills where disgraced rapper Diddy filmed a music video has been vandalized by graffiti artists and taken over by squatters.
Filmmaker Nick Sozonov caught some of Los Angeles’s best graffiti artists vandalizing a multi-million dollar Hollywood Hills mansion abandoned by the son of billionaire Philadelphia Phillies owner John S. Middleton, John Powers Middleton.
The beautiful white glass house, which once belonged to singer Mary J. Blige, is now covered in rainbow art, from words to a crying dead heart and faces.
“With the graffiti towers and this graffiti house right now it feels like a big middle finger to the city,” Sozonov, who was not involved in the tagging, said ABC7.
The corner of the roof reads, “Diddy was here,” as this is the mansion where the rapper — who was arrested in Manhattan this week as part of a sex trafficking investigation — filmed his sex scene. ‘Last Night’ videowhich was released in 2016.
The $10 million mansion – owned by billionaire and Philadelphia Phillies owner John S. Middleton’s son, John Powers Middleton – has been vandalized by taggers and squatters since he left
The beautiful white and glass house – which once belonged to singer Mary J. Blige – is now covered in rainbow art, from words to a crying dead heart and faces
“We all recognized the song and once we knew it was a house, everyone was excited about it. It looked like a celebrity mansion,” Sozonov told ABC 7.
More and more taggers came into the house after the connection with Diddy was made.
According to the local outlet, Los Angeles police have been called to the six-bedroom home at least six times this month for reports of vandalism and trespassing, and at least 10 people were evicted on Wednesday.
One person was arrested on a warrant, ABC 7 reported.
One vandal even bragged about his work KTLAcalled his artwork “beautiful” and said the house had “a lot of potential for graffiti art.”
The corner of the roof reads: ‘Diddy was here’, as this is the mansion where the rapper filmed his Last Night video, which was released in 2016
He said it was easy to enter the site through several access points.
Today, private security patrols the house 24 hours a day.
While the neighborhood didn’t appreciate the vandalism and squatting, one person told KTLA that the taggers weren’t dangerous and didn’t feel unsafe.
“It’s gotten a little bigger than it should be and there doesn’t seem to be much concern for the safety and well-being of the neighbors,” resident Magnus Fiennes told ABC 7.
According to resident Mateo Herrerros, the taggers also defaced “other houses on other properties.”
Pictured: Diddy films at the mansion for his music video
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs was arrested in Manhattan this week as part of a sex trafficking investigation
“I don’t care about this house. It’s an abandoned house. The owner doesn’t care. I don’t really care. It’s just the element that it brings,” he said. NBC Los Angeles.
LA City Councilwoman Nithya Raman said in a statement to ABC 7 that Middleton is in “serious breach” of the law and said her office would “raise the matter with the Department of Building and Safety’s abandoned buildings unit to ensure full enforcement is implemented as quickly and urgently as possible.”
Raman said Middleton ignored an abatement order issued by the Buildings Department.
There is also a lien on the mansion and Middleton has been in default on property taxes for several years, ABC 7 reported.
Middleton also owns another mansion in the neighborhood that he vacated but which has now been taken over by squatters.
The mansion, located at 7571 Mulholland Drive, was also once occupied by squatters until a fence was put up to keep them out. That didn’t last long, however.
“They cut the fence. There were a lot of very shady people,” Karin Gideon told ABC 7. “Some were crazy, some were even threatening,” she said of the squatters.
Neighbors told NBC Los Angeles that the house has been vacant for about a decade, but that squatters only moved in about a year ago.
Middleton bought the property in 2012. Ten years later, he declared it a nuisance and was ordered by the Department of Buildings to build a fence around it, which he did not do. The city subsequently built the fence, according to NBC Los Angeles.
As for the future of the building, local resident Pat Johnson heard there may be plans to demolish it.
This week, Diddy was arrested at the Park Hyatt Hotel in New York City and later charged with human trafficking and transportation of persons for the purpose of prostitution. He pleaded guilty to all of those charges in a Manhattan court.