It took months of legal wrangling for this woman to win back her mother's home.
A California woman had to force her way into her own mother’s home with the help of cops after a lengthy battle to get an alleged squatter out of the residence.
Read: Woman Returns From Vacation and Says Found up to 10 'Squatters' Living in Her Home
Jan Breslauer's parents lived in the San Diego home, where they raised their family, for 60 years. Then patriarch Alan Breslauer became ill.
His wife, Fran, hired a live-in housekeeper to help out with chores around the house. Alan died last January, but the housekeeper, 71-year-old Cheryl Sherell, refused to leave because she claimed that she was a legal tenant.
In a shocking twist, it was 90-year-old Fran who says she was forced to leave her own home.
The upset daughter said: “The law in California is so bad, property law in particular, that it enables the person in possession to do this to the rightful owner of a house.”
Sherrell is a notorious hoarder who was once featured on the TLC show Hoarders: Buried Alive in 2010.
Fran's neighbors were so outraged that they created a Facebook page called, “Get Cheryl Sherrell Out Of That House!”
Jan told Inside Edition: “It's incredibly traumatic, we all feel violated, but my mother especially.”
It took months of legal wrangling for Jan, who is a lawyer, to win back her mother's home.
When she returned to the home for the first time earlier this month, she discovered dog excrement and detritus everywhere. She claimed Sherrell made “shambles of the place.”
The bedroom Jan slept in growing up had actually been rented out.
“I've seen some sloppy residences but this is just beyond the pale,” the distraught daughter said.
Read: New York Woman Trying to Kick Alleged 'Socialite Squatter' Out of Apartment
Fran hasn't seen what's become of her home yet. She's been staying with another one of her daughters.
"I am afraid to go and look, I just lost my husband, I don't know if I can stand another loss right now after she has it looking like a junk yard," Fran told Inside Edition.
Jan added: “My mother created this house. She designed it. My mother and father cared for it like a third child.”
Sherrell was arrested Monday on charges of theft, theft against an elder, elder abuse and criminal trespass. She is being held on $10,000 bail and will be arraigned October 25.
