BALTIMORE — It’s a video viewed thousands of time on the Citizen App.
You can see a man on the third floor of an abandoned house on North Gilmore Street throwing objects outside of the window.
He appears to be suffering from some type of mental health emergency.
"When I first looked at it, it was one of those things where’s this and moments later you recognize that’s your house and immediately, honestly I started shaking my head,” said Keno Brown.
He lives on the same street where it happened. He says in his five years in the Franklin Square neighborhood, he has seen more trauma than he imagined he would.
“The individuals in the video just walking around, it didn’t seem like there was a life or death situation because most of the people there are used to it,” Brown shared.
The squatter on camera miraculously avoided serious injuries as questions loom surrounding why or how he was there in the first place given the safety threats squatters have posed over the years.
“Just my home alone, the two homes next to me the one to the left has had two fires due to squatters. The one on the right has had a fire due to squatting. The one of the right had water damage so bad the basement flooded my basement and caused a fire,” shared Brown.
Those fires mentioned have been costly for Brown.
“I’ve had to switch insurance companies and had to really get out there and grind and find an insurance company that would cover me because of the amount of fires in that short period of time,” he said.
He says they end up costing him more money for insurance, less sleep and peace of mind.
“I don’t sleep well because something can be happening in any given moment, any given time something can be happening,” said Brown.
If the safety hazards that stem from vacancies and squatters aren't addressed Brown says his home could be the next one vacant.
“I’ll probably have to move because unfortunately that community has been this way for years,” he said.
