Squatters take over Wyoming city: Vagrants leave millions of dollars worth of damage to motel and 500lbs of human feces in downtown area – as Casper fights off a homeless invasion

Squatters have taken over a Wyoming town after some left millions of dollars worth of damage to a motel and others left 500 pounds of feces in the downtown area.

Casper, the state’s second-largest city, has a population of 60,000 but now also has about 200 homeless people.

Some have seized several properties that are vacant or abandoned, including an abandoned Econo Lodge motel that has been out of business since November.

Casper Mayor Bruce Knell described the magnitude of the destruction as comparable to “Third World country stuff.”

A group of 200 homeless people in Wyoming caused millions of dollars in damage to a local motel in downtown Casper

In addition to the rubbish, the squatters also left 250 kg of human waste in the building

The squatters broke into the abandoned Econo Lodge which was already closed due to flooding

“It’s like I didn’t see anything. Things from Third World countries are happening in Casper, Wyoming,” he said Cowboy state daily. “They destroyed everything. It’s terrible.’

The motel, which had about 300 rooms, had already been closed due to flooding and taken over by squatters, who have now made it both uninhabitable and dangerous.

The flooding was initially caused last winter after water pipes froze and burst, flooding a floor and flooding the electrical switchboard.

Casper Mayor Bruce Knell, pictured, characterized the level of destruction as unparalleled and compared it to conditions typically found in Third World countries.

That alone caused millions of damage, but the squatters have only made things worse.

After the property was seized by the bank, the building was secured and boarded up.

But the homeless group broke in and has now left behind hundreds of pounds of human feces that the city is facing as part of a cleanup effort.

“They destroyed this company,” Knell said News from the oil city. “It broke my heart to see,” when he commented on how he saw drug paraphernalia and the wanton destruction of furniture.

“You can’t understand what happened to that hotel,” he said.

City officials admit they’ve run out of ideas on how to effectively deal with the growing number of vagrants, noting that fines and arrests don’t seem to help when it comes to solving the problem.

“We know full well that we can’t litigate our way or arrest ourselves to get out of the problem, but our police need some teeth to deal with the squatters,” Mayor Knell said. “They just cause so many problems.”

“In desperate times, people do desperate things, and unfortunately we are the ones left to deal with,” he continued.

The motel, previously closed due to flooding, was overtaken by squatters who have since rendered it unfit for habitation and dangerous.

The property was boarded up and abandoned after a flood

Homelessness has become a major problem in Casper, with about 200 squatting in a city of 60,000

The city government is now considering introducing a new code that would require squatters to obtain written permission from property owners and set limits on how long they can camp on private property.

The mayor of the city has suggested that while homelessness is a complex issue to deal with, many of those who find themselves in such a position also struggle with substance abuse or mental illness and make a point of refusing to conform to the rules and laws of society.

It means they have no access to shelters, so they instead roam the community and engage in even more anti-social behavior.

“There’s a certain segment of the homeless population, whether it’s substance abuse or mental illness, that gets them to a point where they don’t want to conform to society’s rules,” Knell said.

“If they do, they’re not allowed into the shelter, which means they’re just out and about in our community, causing hell.”