Black Series RVs is a luxury RV company that offers various trailers, catered to those who may live a more rugged lifestyle, such as overlanding in remote destinations. They’re advertised as “the strongest and most durable trailer on the market.” Each RV ranges from $40,000 to $100,000.
Over 50 of the company’s products on a storage lot near the showroom have been taken over by squatters.
“We’ve noticed that several of the trailers have been burning,” Marilyn Martinez, who works close to the site, told CBS. “There are homeless people here sometimes late at night. They’re coming in and out.”
CBS showed video of some of the RVs vandalized with graffiti, furniture ripped out of them, or turned into dumpsters.
One was shown to have the top removed, overflowing with trash and debris. The company has tried to remove some of the RVs to clean and resell. Security teams recovered a few, but they could not be salvaged.
Efforts to remove the RVs from the lot have stopped, out of fear for the team’s safety, and the company turned to the city for help.
“The City does not own the site,” the city’s assistant manager wrote in a statement. “This is a private trespass dispute between the property owners and a private party. The city is working with the property owners in helping to coordinate clean-up efforts at the site.”
County supervisors have sent outreach teams to the site. Team members handed members of the encampment a list of phone numbers for city-funded homeless shelters.
“They give you a piece of paper and tell you to call these numbers, but they already know that shelters are already full,” Raymond Henderson, one of the camp’s members, said. “Now, they are about to kick out a lot of people who don’t really have nowhere to go. So, you are going to be seeing them on every bus stop, every street corner. You are going to be seeing these people. It sucks.”
Corporate members are fighting in court to transfer ownership of the lot to the company. Once it’s in the company’s possession, they can legally remove the squatters.
