A video showing reporter Charlie LeDuff talking with a transgender squatter in Detroit has gone viral, racking up over 700,000 views since being uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday.
In the video, titled “Squatting on the Squatter, LeDuff visits a house that the owner bought in Detroit, then tried to sell—only problem being that “Lynn the squatter” was already living inside. After allegedly trying to run Lynn over with her car after the squatter wouldn’t vacate the premises, the homeowner was sent to jail, and Lynn was allowed to move back in. LeDuff follows up in the video.
He begins by getting the keys to the house from the rightful owner, identified in the deed as Sarah Hamiliton-Gilmer. LeDuff then heads to the house, where Lynn Arthur Williams Jr. is squatting. LeDuff calls the cops beforehand, since Williams is on probation for “felonious assault with a deadly weapon.”
LeDuff walks up the stairs, greets Williams, then says “I’m coming to move in.”
Williams doesn’t let him in saying, “This is Lynn Williams’ house.”
To which LeDuff points out, “It doesn’t say Lynn.”
Williams responds, “Of course not, because [the homeowner] took all my paperwork, and everybody else know it.”
Later, Williams admits to stealing power from a neighboring house, explaining, “I am blessed.”
When asked about her legal name, and whether it’s Arthur, Williams says her name is Lynn, and spells it out for the reporter.
LeDuff later leans over to her while the pair are standing on the porch after the cops arrive and says in a faux whisper, “I don’t think you’re going to get away with this.”
Williams is then cuffed and taken to jail. Her boyfriend is interviewed at the end of the video, and says that she could spend up to two years in jail due to violating her probation.