MIDDLE RIVER, Md. (WBFF) — A house on Armor Street in Middle River was supposed to be empty. It had been gutted, remodeled and listed for sale. On a rainy Thursday, Aug. 20, a real estate showing brought Baltimore County police to the door instead.The incident report noted that Germarcco Dante Trayham, the 45-year-old occupant who handed police a lease, “has been involved in squatting situations almost identical to those at other vacant properties.”A newly renovated home in Middle River, Md., recently listed at more than $438,000, has been taken over by a repeat squatter, according to police records. This latest incident has prompted calls for a statewide repeat squatter registry to protect property owners and aid law enforcement. (Steve Pierce/Spotlight on Maryland)The alleged repeat offenses outlined in police documents have sparked a call for the Maryland General Assembly to establish a repeat squatter offender registry.Mackenzie Maggio, a Maryland real estate agent who previously found Trayham in a federally owned HUD property in January in Baltimore County, said meaningful action is outstanding.There’s nothing in motion to really track people,” Maggio said. “They’re just going to keep doing it over and over again.”Spotlight on Maryland has reported for more than a year on the squatting crisis in Maryland, documenting home takeovers by purportedly unknown individuals. During the most recent legislative session, state lawmakers passed legislation that made it a felony to create a fake lease, but the state still has no reliable way for the next officer, listing agent or neighbor to know whether the alleged squatter has been there before.An alleged squatter’s historyA Baltimore County homeowner, who asked not to be named for fear of safety and because this is another instance of his properties being allegedly struck by squatters, said he spent the summer renovating a former foreclosure and putting it on the market for more than $438,000.A house on Armor Street in Middle River, Md., outside of Baltimore, was taken over in mid-August 2026 by a squatter whom police have repeatedly found in properties in the area. (Steve Pierce/Spotlight on Maryland)Neighbors described a man, woman and child coming and going, sometimes overnight, in a white Mercedes-Benz.Across the street, John Callick said he looked Trayham in the eye when Callick interjected as police initially arrived at the squatter dispute across the street.When asked whether he believed Trayham when he presented the police with a lease, he said, “absolutely not. Absolutely not for a second.”Maryland court records reviewed show an extensive criminal history for Trayham that includes armed robbery and theft charges, handgun and drug-related cases, and a federal conviction for possessing a handgun as a felon.My head is on a swivel,” Callick said.An online profile, that shared Trayham’s full name led Spotlight on Maryland to a 2015 self-published novel, Every Which Way, written by Ger’marcco Dante Trayham and marketed as a work of fiction about deception, extortion and a male escort he refers to as a “gigolo.”Spotlight on Maryland’s investigative journalist Gary Collins attempts to make contact with Germarcco Dante Trayham at a disputed Middle River, Md., property on Wednesday, August 26, 2026. Trayham has been identified as a “repeat squatter,” according to police. (Steve Pierce/Spotlight on Maryland)Soon after Spotlight on Maryland published its first story about Trayham, social media became abuzz about the social media profiles and the book.Trayham did not respond to phone calls and text message requests sent on Wednesday and Thursday to schedule an interview.Spotlight on Maryland reached out to Trayham’s mother last week after being unable to make contact with him at the Middle River home. Minutes after the call, Trayham called back, initially agreeing to an interview but then rejecting Spotlight on Maryland’s request.After the news crew left, a neighbor sent a photo of a white Mercedes leaving the home’s garage.Prior incidents allegedBaltimore County records show police have encountered Trayham at least three other unrelated county properties.In January, Maggio alleged she found him in a federally owned HUD house.An incident report said police were given a lease that raised many questions.A lease that Germarcco Dante Trayham allegedly provided to Baltimore County police in January for a house he purportedly was squatting in contained an unidentified person, a landlord address that didn’t exist, and a phone number that was disconnected. (Graphic: Steve Pierce/Spotlight on Maryland)The document listed an address in Washington, D.C., a phone number, and a landlord named Akbume Ambimbola. The address does not exist in the District of Columbia as listed.The phone number is also disconnected, and the databases that Spotlight on Maryland reviewed on Wednesday did not identify a matching person with the same or similar names in the region.“I have no idea if that’s a real name or a real person,” Maggio said. “I just know it’s a name on a lease.”Maggio said she has watched the same cycle play out through Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace online posts: a listing that looks real, a document that looks official and an occupant who reappears.“There’s nothing in motion to really track people,” she said, “so they’re just going to keep doing it over and over again.”Maryland real estate agent Mackenzie Maggio told Spotlight on Maryland she has consistently came across repeat squatters in her line of work. She said a central registry may be a helpful solution. (Steve Pierce/Spotlight on Maryland)What Annapolis fixed, what’s left undoneSpotlight on Maryland’s investigation began in the early summer of 2025 when it discovered Instagram tours of “last resort” houses, cash paid for keys, and leases that property managers said they had never signed.Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, signed bipartisan legislation in May that, effective Oct. 1, will make creating a counterfeit residential lease with intent to defraud a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.Knowingly possessing one can be charged as a misdemeanor under the new law.A separate bipartisan measure was passed and signed into law to study blockchain title verification. A law passed in 2025 shortened some wrongful-detainer hearings; however, it remains unclear how effective that change has been in practice.None of those statutes builds a shared list of alleged squatters police have already found, with unverifiable leases, in houses they do not belong in and gained access to through fraudulent or criminal means.’Make it public’After Spotlight on Maryland reported on the Armor Street squatter takeover, state Del. Ryan Nawrocki, a Baltimore County Republican, walked the neighborhood near his own and told residents they were not dealing with “the Boy Scouts across the street.”After Spotlight on Maryland’s report on an alleged repeat squatter in Middle River, Md., Maryland Del. Ryan Nawrocki, R-Baltimore County, right, walked the neighborhood near his house, speaking with neighbor John Callick, left. (Steve Pierce/Spotlight on Maryland)Nawrocki was adamant that the current solutions on the books, including newly passed and yet-effective laws aimed at squatting, are not enough. He echoed Maggio’s suggestion of a squatter registry for habitual squatting offenders.It could look a lot like a sex offender registry,” Nawrocki said. Not for a single disputed occupancy but for people who do it “over and over, like the individual we are talking about here,” so that “law enforcement knows who they are dealing with when they come to a property like this.”Maggio said transparency of the proposed list is critical.“Take warrant of it and make it public,” Maggio said. “If they put it in their system and there is an active list, it would be a lot easier to track it and hopefully get these people in jail.”Callick reached a simpler analogy. At a traffic stop, he said, you have to prove you own the car.“So why isn’t there something like that with real estate? Houses don’t even move,” Callick said.The registry no state has builtMaryland currently does not have such a registry in place, and no state in the country appears to maintain a public, sex-offender-style roster of habitual unauthorized occupants.While the idea sounds simple, in statute it could be a thicket that requires parameters. What finding puts a name on the list – an arrest, a conviction, a civil judgment or a police narrative? Who runs it? How does someone get off? What happens when a forged lease was used by a person who was also scammed?The calls for a new statewide squatter registry would require the Maryland General Assembly to identify: who qualifies, what legal findings put someone on it, and how would someone get removed. (Graphic: Steve Pierce/Spotlight on Maryland)This year, Vermont considered a “Squatter Reform Act” that would have criminalized knowingly unauthorized occupancy and fake leases. The bill died.Other states have taken a more expedited approach to remove squatters from properties. Florida, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia, Indiana and a growing roster of others let an owner swear out an affidavit and have a sheriff remove unauthorized occupants.Texas’ 2025 law authorized removal based on a sworn complaint, with no eviction lawsuit required for that narrow class of occupant.All of those laws change what happens in the first 48 hours after a squatter is identified on a property. While aimed at expediting the eviction process, none of these laws enacted elsewhere would tell an officer in Middle River that the same name on the lease appeared in January at a disputed HUD house as did in August on Armor Street.Baltimore County police on Wednesday were asked by Spotlight on Maryland whether any instant search features are available to officers. The agency did not respond.Meanwhile, Prince George’s County officials, in earlier Spotlight on Maryland reporting last year, asked for technology to flag “serial squatters” and the social media accounts that profit from placing them.Have you experienced or had direct knowledge of squatting or unauthorized occupancy occurring in Maryland? Do you have any tips related to this story? Send news tips to gmcollins@sbgtv.com or contact Spotlight on Maryland’s hotline at (410) 467-4670.Follow Gary Collins on X and Instagram. Spotlight on Maryland is a collaboration between FOX45 News, WJLA in Washington, D.C., and The Baltimore Sun.
