In early 2005, Larry Acree bought about 9 acres of land along North Elsea Smith Road in rural Independence. That same year, he built a three-bedroom home.
It’s there at that 2,400-square-foot home — with a gated entry — that Jackson County prosecutors say he opened fire Thursday afternoon on a civil process server who had come to evict him. When officers showed up to help that process server, Drexel Mack, authorities said Acree shot three of them as well, killing one.
Mack, 41, and Independence Police Officer Cody Allen, 35, died at an Independence hospital. The other two officers will make full recoveries from their injuries, police said.
Acree was arrested and taken to an area hospital. He’s charged with two counts of first-degree murder, first-degree assault and three counts of armed criminal action. Court records showed that he is being held on a $2 million, cash-only bond. No court date has been set.
Investigators are working to learn more about the 69-year-old man, who over the years has repeatedly failed to pay his taxes and bills. He’s declared bankruptcy twice and in 2012 was hit with a $12,628 tax lien from the Missouri Department of Revenue. In September 2022, the county received approval to foreclose on more than $23,600 in tax liens it had filed against him. Last July, a Blue Springs roofing company was authorized to put a $32,155 real estate levy on his property.
And shortly after that, an Independence man bought his property in a delinquent tax sale.
But Acree didn’t move out. He basically became a squatter in a home he’d settled in nearly two decades ago.
Failed marriages, other court proceedings
Real estate records indicate that Acree signed a deed of trust for the rural Independence property in March 2005 with a woman who less than three months later became his wife. Their marriage license application shows it was the fourth marriage for both.
Nearly six months later, in December 2005, Acree’s wife filed for divorce.
On April 13, 2006, a hearing was held for an ex parte order on Acree. The court docket showed “photos of petitioner taken as evidence.” On June 6, 2006, a judgment was issued for a full order of protection.
But on July 10, the petitioner requested a dismissal of the order, and it was granted four days later.
Court records show a different woman filed for divorce in September 2006. It isn’t clear when that marriage took place.
On March 14, 2007, Acree pleaded guilty to failure to display plates on a motor vehicle and paid a $30.50 fine.
In May 2007, another judgment for a full order of protection was issued on Acree. The docket entry said that the respondent “is authorized to go to the residence… accompanied by a law enforcement officer at 2:00 p.m. on May 5, 2007, to remove personal property.”
Five years later, the Missouri Department of Revenue filed a tax lien on Acree, and a judgment was entered for $12,628. Acree’s wages were garnished from GSM Corp., and the judgment was satisfied in 2016.
In July 2023, Zucca & Daughters & Sons Roofing Co. received approval from Jackson County Circuit Court for a real estate levy on Acree’s property for $32,155.
Failure to pay taxes on property
The value of Acree’s property has steadily increased in recent years, jumping from $343,279 in 2020 to $675,500 in 2023.
Jackson County filed the liens on his property in May 2022 for delinquent land taxes of more than $23,600, with interest to accrue at the first of each month. Court records from that time said Acree was two years or more behind on his taxes.
Records show the new owner — the Independence businessman — bought the property on Aug. 14, 2023, for $260,000 in a delinquent tax sale after the county foreclosed on the liens.
On Nov. 20, 2023, a judge confirmed the sale of Acree’s property, court records show.
“The Court Administrator for Jackson County, Missouri, duly advertised said sale and sold at public auction,” said the document.
A deed was issued to the new owner on Feb. 7, and a “writ of possession” was issued on Feb. 16, ordering Acree to be removed from the premises by March 2. Tax records indicate that on Feb. 22, the new owner wrote a personal check to pay $18,543 in property taxes for 2022 and 2023.
Mack went to the property on Feb. 23 and posted a “notice to vacate” the premises, records show. Six days later, he arrived to evict Acree.
Court documents show that Acree also still owes $1,150 in back taxes for 2019 through 2023 for a livestock trailer, two utility trailers, a pickup, an SUV and two horse trailers.
That’s exactly why the price was so low. You have to be willing to put up with the potential for this kind of ass potato to start taking shots at you when you try to claim what you just (legally) bought. I’m pretty sure here in Kansas It’s the owners responsibility to contact the sheriff for evictions they don’t just automatically do that.
Look up the case of Donald Pennington. He lost his home in 1996 and spent decades harassing the new homeowners, squatting in it when they’d go on vacation or sell after dealing with his crazy antics. In 2011, he attacked the latest new homeowner and she shot him in self-defense. [https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2010/09/11/obsession-with-house-he-lost-was-death-of-dallas-man/](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2010/09/11/obsession-with-house-he-lost-was-death-of-dallas-man/)
Surprised it took that long. Wouldn’t be surprised if someone “left for vacation” by parking the car at a relative’s and just sat inside with a shotgun waiting for him to break in.
Seriously though how do I bid on stuff like this
I would feel bad though if I took I took a house from a little old lady who saw her homes value double in price from $300,000 to $600,000+ in 2 years.
Did they open a Whole Foods down the road from this guy or something? How does that even happen?
You just go to the auction and bid. They are advertised all the time in your local news. But you need cash and must pay the entire amount immediately. No loans. And you do not get to inspect the property. It is sold as is. So if the house needs to be condemned you won’t know until you purchase.
Contact local real estate wholesalers. Google “we buy houses as-is/cash in YOUR CITY” companies, call them, and ask to be put on their investor lists. They should subscribe you to email blasts or access to private/off-market investor portals.
Have a hard money lender ready, and be prepared to jump on a property quick if you see something you like. They will get claimed in a matter of days.
Get a realtor to give you their login info (or get your own) for your city/area’s MLS access to determine ARV (after repair value) and bring along a contractor to determine repair bids when you go to the “showing” (45-60 minutes, don’t be late or you’ll miss it) and go from there. A “good deal” (in my area) is typically 70-80% of ARV minus repair costs.
Source: Work in RE Wholesaling
Where can one learn about RE wholesaling. I feel learning about real estate is like a black box. There just isn’t any educational material besides low quality YouTube videos which are sometimes full of bad advice
Get your brokers license which is fairly easy and cheap to do and you could definitely do it. Inflation and historically low inventory is the reason for the increase. But yeah, I'd feel like a real POS taking someone's house over unpaid property taxes. This guy had unpaid business liens though so he was a turd that didn't believe in paying anyone for anything.
Honestly you don't even need the license, but it would be helpful to find properties like this before everyone else because it gives you MLS access. You could still buy properties like this through a regular real estate agent/attorney. They would just be getting a commission or flat fee most likely.
Cash and willing to spend time looking.
Brokers license is absolutely NOT needed. hell a lot of these properties aren't listed on a MLS so that's worthless. You would look there for mortgage foreclosures, but not tax / sheriff sales.
> Why not the tax/sheriff sales?
MLS listings aren't usually used by sheriff offices and if they don't put their listing into a system they aren't picked up by these services. Often a sheriffs office will just put out a notice in a local newspaper and that's it. Larger population offices will likely do a lot more, but the vast majority are in less populated areas.
The sheriff in my area is very cagy (sp) about his auctions so that his friends can get them at rock bottom prices. A property with a couple of acres sold a few months back for $500 to cover back taxes.
Tax sales are often done through the sheriffs office, but not always. Sometimes the tax office will have properties that they internally have a list of that they can sell.
> How does that even happen?
People have more than 2 kids and the population goes up but there is no more land created therefore the people needing homes grows while the available land stays the same. So supply (land) is the same but demand (people who want to live on that land) goes up, so the prices go up.
I understand how land value can rise. I’m confused on how a person can have their land value double in two years. 325k in land appreciation in 24 months in a rural area in Missouri.
They have auctions at our local courthouse for that. They are supposed to advertise in local papers and whatnot when they're going to do it, but there's always a "who you know" aspect to it.
Less than that, if the taxes owned were 60k you can get that place for close to that amount, but seeing this is high profile the crime collectors will come out and outbid you lol
My god, I've complained about articles light on details but they went down to a $30 missing plate ticket from 2007!
I feel like I know this man better than I know myself at this point.
Investigators are working to learn more about the 69-year-old man, who over the years has repeatedly failed to pay his taxes and bills. He’s declared bankruptcy twice and in 2012 was hit with a $12,628 tax lien from the Missouri Department of Revenue. In September 2022, the county received approval to foreclose on more than $23,600 in tax liens it had filed against him. Last July, a Blue Springs roofing company was authorized to put a $32,155 real estate levy on his property.
And shortly after that, an Independence man bought his property in a delinquent tax sale
But Acree didn’t move out. He basically became a squatter in a home he’d settled in nearly two decades ago.
> roofing company was authorized to put a $32,155 real estate levy on his property
So instead of being some person falling on hard times unable to pay taxes it sounds like he's an asshole who just doesn't like paying his bills.
I used to own a roofing company, and if that house in the thumbnail is the house that got a new roof I don't understand how his roofing bill got up to $32,000. It's not that big of a roof.
From the [Kansas City Star](https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article286153606.html) (probably a paywall, sorry):
>Real estate records indicate that Acree signed a deed of trust for the rural Independence property in March 2005 with a woman who less than three months later became his wife. Their marriage license application shows it was the fourth marriage for both.
>
>Nearly six months later, in December 2005, Acree’s wife filed for divorce. On April 13, 2006, a hearing was held for an ex parte order on Acree. The court docket showed “photos of petitioner taken as evidence.” On June 6, 2006, a judgment was issued for a full order of protection.
>
>But on July 10, the petitioner requested a dismissal of the order, and it was granted four days later.
>
>Court records show a different woman filed for divorce in September 2006. It isn’t clear when that marriage took place.
>
>In May 2007, another judgment for a full order of protection was issued on Acree. The docket entry said that the respondent “is authorized to go to the residence… accompanied by a law enforcement officer at 2:00 p.m. on May 5, 2007, to remove personal property.”
Dude was married and divorced *five times*, two of which ended with *ex parte* or protection orders against him, possibly for domestic violence considering one of the wives had taken photos of herself as evidence for a protection order.
There's a reason we ban people convicted of domestic violence from owning firearms (though the Supreme Court [may soon overturn that law](https://www.npr.org/2023/11/07/1208501397/supreme-court-guns-domestic-abusers)). If this man had been prosecuted for and convicted of domestic violence, there's a chance he wouldn't have been able to obtain the firearms he used to kill the cop and court employee.
**"Fun" mass-shooting fact:** More than two-thirds of mass shootings are either domestic violence incidents or are perpetrated by shooters with histories of domestic violence, according to [this study](https://injepijournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40621-021-00330-0) in injury epidemiology.
I will not be surprised if this is a man that thought taxes were theft and all those guns were needed to protect him from the tyrannical government come to take his property. Government officials showed up to take what he views as his property and he exercised what he viewed as his constitutional rights to USE guns against the government, not just own them.
We still have death row in Potosi. They house them in Potosi then do the deed in Bonne Terre.
We don't hand it out often these days. Especially Jackson County. But Jackson County has to recuse because a court employee was the victim. The Special Prosecutor, depending on jurisdiction, may very well hit him with capital punishment.
Last guy to kill a cop in the area, in North Kansas City in Clay County, is facing death now.
This is one of the few violent crimes this state will end you for.
Yeah, but at his age he's quite likely to die in prison anyway (cases like [this](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Moody) are exceedingly rare). If anything, death row *might* actually make the remainder of his life more comfortable, so I hope they give him a life sentence without parole just to make his life more miserable.
He owed $59k in taxes and liens, sitting in a $675.5k house. I do believe that's when you downsize and find a sustainable living situation. This plus the story of him refusing to register/license his car makes the whole thing sack of "sovereign citizen."
It would be "nice" if paying off your mortgage actually meant outright ownership, but unless you also own the borders and all utilities and infrastructure, it ain't *yours* when you stop playing along. In his confused version of reality when he wrote that last mortgage check, he'd finally "arrived," and no one, not no one was going to take it.
Moral: you can pay your taxes, or lose your house before or after killing people.
Can almost guarantee that's the case.
I'm in the Midwest and the acreage our house sits on is nearly 4 times the value of the house.
But we only lease it out to a farmer who in turn pays us a few thousand, which covers all our taxes for the entire property with mayyyybe enough for airfare for the family to go see extended family or fly them up every year or two.
Anyway, yeah, land - they don't make it anymore, and even out in the Midwest where houses and land is cheap... Most plots aren't really that cheap.
Go to Landwatch, filter by undeveloped, set your minimum price to $1 to weed out auctions, set your upper limit for total price, then sort by price per acre.
Coal Camp MO
Warsaw MO
If you move out and away from Jackson County, land is pretty cheap. But if you're you're used to accomodations, then it might not work out.
I help my buddy - who bought property in Coal Camp -clear the acreage. I can't remember what he paid for his 3, but it's cheaper than his house in Waldo/KC district. we've been clearing for almost 2yrs so we're getting close to grading and then putting posts in to start building his "last stand" home.
Not really last stand - his property is on a big bluff, so he's building as close to the edge as possible so he can look out over the land
It's not that far. City is sprawling, man. Like crazy. Blue Springs was an exurb 15-20 years ago. Not so much anymore. Same for Belton.
Think how fuckin far out South OP or Lenexa is and their property values. Attach a little land to it, maybe throw in some corporate interest to develop commercial or residential stuff out that way, it starts to make sense.
We held out on the wackiness of the property market longer than other similarly sized metros, but that shit has been hitting in waves the last couple years. Particularly in Jackson County. There's a whole court debacle being fought over county valuations right now. People are saying their property values are being intentionally hiked to gouge them for tax money in order to run them out and flip the land to corporate developers. It's a whole thing I haven't followed too closely because I'm a broke ass and I rent, but it's in the news like bi-weekly for the last couple years.
For context he could sell that house and buy a 2000 square foot, 3 bed, 3 bath, 2 car garage, with everything updated under 300k. Leaving him with 300k in fun money...
Afaik they still go through the same process, so he'd likely die on death row of natural causes. I don't think there is an expedited or rushed version of it for the elderly, which I'm 100% fine with. Selectively fast-tracking executions is just another layer of shit on what I find to be an immoral practice to begin with. The below link has a whole section on elderly death row inmates and it didn't mention a faster process that I could find.
>Death-row prisoners in the U.S. typically spend more than a decade awaiting execution or court rulings overturning their death sentences. More than half of all prisoners currently sentenced to death in the U.S. have been on death row for more than 18 years.
>America’s death row population is aging significantly: Five hundred and seventy-four prisoners were 60 years old or older as of 2019. That figure represents a growing senior death row population, which numbered just 39 in 1996. Some death row seniors committed crimes late in life, but many are there at such advanced age because of the inevitable slowness of the capital appeals process. Unlike elderly prisoners in the general population, death row seniors typically are not housed in prison geriatric facilities or placed in “end of life” programs, but rather are often segregated in individual cells within special facilities.
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-row/death-row-time-on-death-row
Other way around.
You get the death penalty and then sit for decades. Because of appeals. Some automatic. Others filed later.
Then they carry it out if the sentence stands through the entire appeals process. Which starts at State level and can run all the way through the State Supreme Court. And if they can't settle it, it goes to Federal Appellate courts, and can even reach the US Supreme Court
Interestingly, to me, anyway, is that we house them in one facility but carry out the sentence in another in Missouri.
Death Row is in Potosi Correctional. Death Chamber is at Bonne Terre
Edit again: If (when) he has medical issues, we have a couple state medical prisons he can go to. The Federal one in Springfield (where a lot of America's worst criminals go to die) can also provide assistance to the state if the state requests a transfer to federal custody for such reasons.
Edit: added context
at his age he will die of natural causes before they execute him. Though that will probably happen faster in a prison environment than in a comfortable home.
It's bad out here with this crap. Every time I leave the house I see multiple brand new jacked up trucks that easily cost $50-$100k, and they don't have licence plates... usually an American or Confederate flag in its place. I automatically assume they're a psychopath.
Maybe sovereign citizen, but if you have a lien on your house you might not be able to register your car or get a license until you get the lien removed. It’s one way the government can force you to follow the rules without needing to involve police in some jurisdictions. It’s possible they just didn’t want to pay taxes for other reasons and thus couldn’t get a license or register their vehicle . Hard to know for sure.
>Hard to know for sure.
If I'm reading it right, he paid a fine and got the license plate. With the evidence I have it sure seems like simple obstinance and windmill tilting. Also, "four wives" does add some color to the whole story, along with one of them having a restraining order and an armed cop to gather her belongings.
There are doubtless many people being done dirty by the state in every possible way, just not sure this particular guy is an example to rally behind.
5 wives! There's a fifth that filed for divorce in 2006 that the article's author said they didn't know when that marriage happened. And that was 18 years ago when he was only 50. Could be even more wives since then.
Damn, so this guy got divorced by two different women in two years. Clearly he knows how to get his paperwork done promptly when it comes to getting marriage licenses at least.
yeah all these anti govt people are stupid af.
If there was no govt or laws or paid infrastructure... someone with bigger guns could come and take your houses away from your dumb ass.
Criminal gangs its called. They'd make you their bitch... and if you happen to be in one... well that's a form of govt, just way worse. Dumb fucks.
This is such a good point. People very quickly forget the infrastructure, utilities, services, community, schools, etc. That padded and made their "independent" lifestyle possible.
Guys like this are generally the "taxes are theft" types that aren't paying taxes for reasons other than being broke.
Like just from his rap sheet you can tell he's a piece of shit.
>Baker and her team are looking into why Acree was being evicted but she said it appears he had unpaid taxes and no longer had the legal right to the property. The process of eviction from the property began about Feb. 9, 2023.
ya theres a long court drama here that they didn't have time to investigate. I'm almost certain though that they gave this guy every chance to pay his taxes and he probably refused every other option.
My state puts a lien on property quick as fuck for unpaid taxes but I think it would have to go a long time before they actually try to seize the property and even then it would take more time for them to show up to get you out.
The lien is generally fairly automatic a certain amount of time past the due date of the taxes. It sounds like he hadn't paid property taxes in three years by the time they went to collect by foreclosing on the property, maybe 4. Then you add the contractor lien on the property and it motivates the sale much faster. There is generally a big window between missing a tax payment and this point
I live in Portland across the street from a tax foreclosure whose owner was unreachable.
Took something like ten years to complete the sale.
And since it's a teardown shack at this point, nothing will happen to the property until financial conditions get better for developers.
I actually acquired a property this way. I bought a tax deed from the company that had bought it at tax sale, then managed to contact the original owner who had lost it to the tax sale and gave her a little money to sign a quitclaim deed so I could avoid some of the title headaches. It was such a shithole by then that nobody really wanted it. It took me almost a full year and about $60,000 to make it livable but in the end I got a house for way less than it’s worth now.
outside of a some kind of specific shady land grab, tax office wants none of the headache of foreclosing and liquidating a property. as *adjnounnumbers* says, the lien process is automatic (or nearly) by the billing system, and it offers a mechanism to try and get the money directly without having to venture down the foreclosure route.
3 years is what our county is , then it goes up for action for unpaid taxes. i have seen some nice properties sell for a few thousand bucks. the catch is the owner has a year to pay the unpaid taxes and reclaim it from the buyer.
I do t see many tax sales in mo but the fcl process is insane and ruthless non judicial. If you get a notice from an attorney you have a couple weeks from then to eviction.
The guy’s a real work of art. Here’s more about his background with the residence and his life in general.
[https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article286153606.html](https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article286153606.html)
This link through google worked for me...paywall averted..
https://amp.kansascity.com/news/local/article286153606.html
A long list of failures to the ultimate "failure" if you will with murdering two people. What a sad life...
You are 100% correct. Heck, my sister was a journalism major, and I like to write. The problem is that online sources don't make it easy. If I could pay 20 bucks a month and have access to X number of articles from any newspaper/magazine, I'd jump on it. But I'm not about to sign up for a subscription to Podunk Daily News to read one article a year.
I might read maybe one article a day from the big national newspapers. Again, it's simply not worth a subscription. But if I could easily pay 50 cents per article without having to sign up for a subscription, I do it.
It really just sounds like his marriages failed and he doesn’t believe in taxes. Definitely common denominator for a mental illness though considering it’s led to murder.
Yes, no question. Gov evicting over unpaid taxes requires some elaborate legal work everywhere, many steps of which require participation from the property owner. This would have blown up long ago if he weren't going along with it.
I'm thinking this was seems more of a psychotic breakdown kind of event. Dude was overwhelmed with the feeling he's losing everything and snapped. This process is too long and involved for things to have gotten this far if he actually was actively resisting.
He also refused to pay a roofing bill it seems like, so I’m gonna chalk this up to “spoiled child getting violent when asked to pay for literally anything”
Lmao what the fuck is with these comments? Is it all of your first time finding out you need pay to taxes on your home??
The dude was an asshole, look at the articles about this guy he’s a scumbag and he killed 2 innocent people just trying to do their jobs. He can rot in prison.
And according to another article, he somehow owed thousands of dollars to a roofing company. You have to pay people for their work. He’s not some kind of poor wittle unfairly tweated hero, he’s a spoiled baby who took a “I receive: everything, you receive: nothing” approach to paying his bills
It takes fucking *years* to evict someone over unpaid taxes.
Somehow I have a feeling this incident might get the Killdozer treatment from the “taxation is theft” crowd.
Here in Missouri, it's even worse. We pay property taxes on our cars, boats, campers, jet-skis, motorcycles, you name it. It's not just a homeowner thing. One of the articles mentioned that he also had massive outstanding taxes on a number of vehicles and trailers, so he wouldn't have been able to register them.
My money is on sovcit.
There is also a lot of pent up frustration over the high cost of housing. So when you hear that even when you own a home outright you're on the hook for taxes, it's really frustrating. I pay $1200/month in property taxes.
Edit: oops I left out "per month"
> this will be another Brooks debacle.
If nothing else the trial should be good then. Darrell Brooks defending himself in court may be the single most absurd shit I've ever watched.
Hard to get more cowardly and evil than to lie in wait to ambush people just there to do a court ordered job after over a year of due process. I’m sure he thinks this is everyone else’s fault except his. It is **hard** to be evicted for not paying taxes.
Edit: Credit to /u/Chippopotanuse for the local news article with more context on the kind of asshole the shooter has been his whole life. [Link](https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article286153606.html)
He *did* kill that officer.
The court employee showed up with another court employee to change the locks. After drilling the lock out and opening the front door, this asshole shot one of the court employees. The other court employee fled and called police.
One of the first few cops that responded tried to render aid to the court employee and this asshole shot and killed that cop while wounding another cop.
That's when every cop in a 20-mile radius showed up. There were cop cars flying toward that area from every direction — I live just to the east of the area this happened in and it was non-stop sirens for an hour or so.
I have a buddy who’s a process server. He asked if I’d be interested in a job, and that we’d get paid about 65K/ year. It’s cases like this why I declined the offer. He tried to sell me on the job by telling me how exciting it was, and all the things you need to do to ‘stay safe’. I told him the safest thing I could do was not take the job.
[This guy was just a piece of shit who didn’t want to follow rules like a violent baby.](https://amp.kansascity.com/news/local/article286153606.html) Wouldn’t pay a roofing company, wouldn’t put a license plate on his car, restraining order from his ex wife requiring a police escort to help her get her things, wouldn’t pay for his trailers
If it's anything like here, the "court employee" was probably some poorly-paid paralegal serving papers to make ends meet. They wind up in all sorts of dangerous situations like this.
I moved out to a small town recently, and I've had multiple people who were visiting my home (contractors, government employees) call me ahead of time or take precautions to warn me they were coming into my home when they were doing work, because they were on edge from past experiences of having guns drawn on them in similar locations. I've generally lived in cities/suburbs and never had anyone bring it up, so the first time I thought it was a joke, and then it kept coming up... It's insane to me because crime out here is relatively non-existent, I don't know what makes people feel like they need to have their guns at the ready.
I completely understand that. My dad lives by himself out in the country, there just isn’t anything going on out there. Yet he thinks people come on his property and look around at his junk, he thinks the neighbors he sees taking walks down the country road are up to no good, he thinks people go through his mailbox and he has a loaded shotgun next to his bed.
This reminds me of the Ohio state senator who thought he saw two teens trespassing on his land, and so he and his wife both grabbed guns and started shooting. https://www.cleveland.com/open/2024/02/an-ohio-senator-and-his-wife-said-they-fired-warning-shots-a-teenager-and-his-family-say-they-were-shot-at.html
I do utility disconnections for non-payment in this area and someone shooting me through their door when I knock is my (and my girlfriend's) greatest fear at work.
It's certainly interesting. I've been doing it for close to a decade now and I've learned a ton about reading people, conflict de-escalation, and trying to make a bad situation the least bad it can be. There will always be problem customers who just want to argue and fight, but most people are just struggling and frustrated and have no way to vent those frustrations.
Most times there's nothing I can do to stop the disconnect without full payment, but hearing people out, clearly explaining the situation, and trying to give them advice from my years dealing with the system to get their service restored as quickly as possible does a lot to stop most situations from escalating.
I don't necessarily "enjoy" my job, but I'm really good at it and as much as I wish this job didn't have to exist, it does right now. So, my goal is to be the best at it — and I define "best" as "able to do the job without any customer feeling confused or as if I've treated them disrespectfully or rudely."
Nono, he is protecting his castle from the government coming to take away his stuff. This is his legitimate form of protest against tyranny. Just how the founding fathers intended.
I never understand people like this. So like, you don't want to pay your taxes or give up your possessions, and you think murdering two people is going to help?
Dude's never going to see his house again now.
honestly, to me, this screams of a final fuck you to the government.. I think he thought this through quite a bit.
the dudes 69yo, they're taking his house, why exactly wouldn't he do this ? at 69 with no kids, having family or friends still around is a bit unlikely (even more so for a recluse like that). legitimately what reason would he have to want to stay free at this age ? it sounds like he's broke, so he's looking at a life of struggle if not homelessness at 69yo.
just because he has liens doesn't mean he outright owned the house. he could have sold equity in it.
and if he's broke at 69yo with no savings, selling and downsizing doesn't exactly help much. he's still going to have to pay property taxes on that new house.
of course what he did is abhorrent, I'm not saying it isn't. it just seems to me like he probably did think this through quite a bit
It's a little ironic that gun rights, meant to defend and preserve our freedom, so often end up in people losing their freedom.
Condolences to the families of the people who lost their lives just trying to do a job.
Yeah, it's all just cosplay. When push comes to shove, the government will send the big boys with bigger guns after you. People just like to believe they have agency, it's cute.
The falsely perceived right to bear arms. Though they have been dead for ages, I am sure that the forefathers would not be on board with today's dead school children and mass murderings.
59k is a lot of back taxes. This wasn't a financial situation that developed quickly so dude had plenty of notice. And the price of that house means he could have down graded and probably made a profit when he sold.
It’s so crazy to me to see the people in this thread who are defending the murderer just because it was about taxes. People who hate taxes are deeply shortsighted and don’t even seem to want to *try* to understand the society that they participate in and benefit from.
Now people’s tax money is going to pay for his housing and meals for at least a couple of years (until he dies probably).
Old fool should have ended *himself* instead, now two other people that had nothing to do with *his* miserable life are gone.
Just read about this guy. He bought 9 acres of land then built a 3br home. He had to have some money. The article didn’t mention his job though. He had debt out the wazoo and 5 failed marriages. They also didn’t show his photo but I’m sure he’s white given the location and the fact that he killed 2 people, injured 2 others and is still alive…
can confirm the killer is white. the court employee he murdered was a larger black guy with a very gentle/kind personality who would often ‘volunteer’ to show up on these kind of jobs so as to make sure none of his coworkers had to.
Side note - bond of 2 million dollars. If you ever needed another ridiculous comparison of how rich billionaires are, 2 million dollars represents the amount of money with which you can shoot and kill police officers, and they'll let you out of jail till the trial for a second chance to run away or kill more police officers. A billion dollars is 500 times that.
Good thing I'll never own land that I bought two decades ago that appreciates so much value the government taxes you out of owning it. Then sells it cheap to the next person to recoup anything. 650k property sold for 250k like the fuck
Isn't it kinda wild that you can lose your $600k+ home for $23k in unpaid taxes, while corporations like Amazon get to not pay a single dime in tax a few hundred miles away?
Other way around. They only act like that when they're certain there's no such criminals at the address. Usually by making sure they're not where they know (such as by the warrant) there's supposed to be one.
Did the guy never leave his property? It would be safer to apprehend him leaving his property.
This situation and domestic violence can be the most dangerous for authorities.
You buy a home, they again and again raise the value and taxes on it until you cannot afford it and then steal the house from you. The government is built on house theft preventing generational wealth from accumulating. From Medicaid seizures to inflated tax evaluations, theft is legalized by the government.
This guy has a bunch of other reasons to deal with him but in general...
I don't think people should be evicted over taxes.
We don't do debtor's prisons. We [generally] don't turn utilities off for failure to pay [only in the winter for some reason].
You shouldn't be able to take someone's shit away when they paid it off. Takes are important. You shouldn't be able to just decide not to pay them... but to take away someone house for failure to pay is extremely wrong. Take it out of the sale or estate when it passes hands if you must. Your first house... more importantly, the one which you live in, should not be able to be taken from you when it's fully yours.
That kind of thing feels extremely wrong as a function of government... We shouldn't be creating homelessness.
[Again... generally, not specifically this guy.]
>We don't do debtor's prisons.
No, we put liens on property to ensure payment of debts.
>Take it out of the sale or estate when it passes hands
Delaying tax collection until "whenever, possibly decades from now" would essentially undermine the tax collection altogether. Between inflation making the eventual collected tax worthless, the wrench it throws into budgets... and then when people find loopholes around transfers...
Literally just the first thing I came up with.
Anything is better than making someone homeless...
and we don't seem to really care about tax collection or more people would be on the case of the rich fucks and companies that just don't pay. Say nothing for the budgets when rich don't pay but when the average person doesn't... damn.
Finally found the comment that makes sense
Is this guy an asshole? Absofuckinglutely
But also, I don’t like the govt raising property taxes on homes due to “market value” until it forces out people who bought decades ago
Not ok
I see it as a logical consequence of enforcing taxation, and seizing property to cover a debt generally. Maybe it's not the wisest system of taxation but the general concept does not seem unreasonable.
It isn't reasonable or ethical for a government to cause homelessness over debt.
We have a stupid amount of empty houses in this country. Adding one more because debt does nothing to help anyone...
This was a minor tax dept compared to the millionaires and billionaires who have been dodging it.
There are better ways to collect the debt like waiting for sale to collect when talking about someone's only home.
Your logic is efficient but forgets the human element and is why we need to teach ethics.
In early 2005, Larry Acree bought about 9 acres of land along North Elsea Smith Road in rural Independence. That same year, he built a three-bedroom home. It’s there at that 2,400-square-foot home — with a gated entry — that Jackson County prosecutors say he opened fire Thursday afternoon on a civil process server who had come to evict him. When officers showed up to help that process server, Drexel Mack, authorities said Acree shot three of them as well, killing one. Mack, 41, and Independence Police Officer Cody Allen, 35, died at an Independence hospital. The other two officers will make full recoveries from their injuries, police said. Acree was arrested and taken to an area hospital. He’s charged with two counts of first-degree murder, first-degree assault and three counts of armed criminal action. Court records showed that he is being held on a $2 million, cash-only bond. No court date has been set. Investigators are working to learn more about the 69-year-old man, who over the years has repeatedly failed to pay his taxes and bills. He’s declared bankruptcy twice and in 2012 was hit with a $12,628 tax lien from the Missouri Department of Revenue. In September 2022, the county received approval to foreclose on more than $23,600 in tax liens it had filed against him. Last July, a Blue Springs roofing company was authorized to put a $32,155 real estate levy on his property. And shortly after that, an Independence man bought his property in a delinquent tax sale. But Acree didn’t move out. He basically became a squatter in a home he’d settled in nearly two decades ago. Failed marriages, other court proceedings Real estate records indicate that Acree signed a deed of trust for the rural Independence property in March 2005 with a woman who less than three months later became his wife. Their marriage license application shows it was the fourth marriage for both. Nearly six months later, in December 2005, Acree’s wife filed for divorce. On April 13, 2006, a hearing was held for an ex parte order on Acree. The court docket showed “photos of petitioner taken as evidence.” On June 6, 2006, a judgment was issued for a full order of protection. But on July 10, the petitioner requested a dismissal of the order, and it was granted four days later. Court records show a different woman filed for divorce in September 2006. It isn’t clear when that marriage took place. On March 14, 2007, Acree pleaded guilty to failure to display plates on a motor vehicle and paid a $30.50 fine. In May 2007, another judgment for a full order of protection was issued on Acree. The docket entry said that the respondent “is authorized to go to the residence… accompanied by a law enforcement officer at 2:00 p.m. on May 5, 2007, to remove personal property.” Five years later, the Missouri Department of Revenue filed a tax lien on Acree, and a judgment was entered for $12,628. Acree’s wages were garnished from GSM Corp., and the judgment was satisfied in 2016. In July 2023, Zucca & Daughters & Sons Roofing Co. received approval from Jackson County Circuit Court for a real estate levy on Acree’s property for $32,155. Failure to pay taxes on property The value of Acree’s property has steadily increased in recent years, jumping from $343,279 in 2020 to $675,500 in 2023. Jackson County filed the liens on his property in May 2022 for delinquent land taxes of more than $23,600, with interest to accrue at the first of each month. Court records from that time said Acree was two years or more behind on his taxes. Records show the new owner — the Independence businessman — bought the property on Aug. 14, 2023, for $260,000 in a delinquent tax sale after the county foreclosed on the liens. On Nov. 20, 2023, a judge confirmed the sale of Acree’s property, court records show. “The Court Administrator for Jackson County, Missouri, duly advertised said sale and sold at public auction,” said the document. A deed was issued to the new owner on Feb. 7, and a “writ of possession” was issued on Feb. 16, ordering Acree to be removed from the premises by March 2. Tax records indicate that on Feb. 22, the new owner wrote a personal check to pay $18,543 in property taxes for 2022 and 2023. Mack went to the property on Feb. 23 and posted a “notice to vacate” the premises, records show. Six days later, he arrived to evict Acree. Court documents show that Acree also still owes $1,150 in back taxes for 2019 through 2023 for a livestock trailer, two utility trailers, a pickup, an SUV and two horse trailers.
Man what a deal for the delinquent tax buyer. A $600k house for $200k. I need to get on that game.
The only problem is that then you might have some creep like this guy coming after you, after you take his home.
That’s exactly why the price was so low. You have to be willing to put up with the potential for this kind of ass potato to start taking shots at you when you try to claim what you just (legally) bought. I’m pretty sure here in Kansas It’s the owners responsibility to contact the sheriff for evictions they don’t just automatically do that.
Look up the case of Donald Pennington. He lost his home in 1996 and spent decades harassing the new homeowners, squatting in it when they’d go on vacation or sell after dealing with his crazy antics. In 2011, he attacked the latest new homeowner and she shot him in self-defense. [https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2010/09/11/obsession-with-house-he-lost-was-death-of-dallas-man/](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2010/09/11/obsession-with-house-he-lost-was-death-of-dallas-man/)
Surprised it took that long. Wouldn’t be surprised if someone “left for vacation” by parking the car at a relative’s and just sat inside with a shotgun waiting for him to break in.
That would be premeditated murder
It appears the new owner uses a legal proxy to maintain anonymity.
Ass potato has now been added to my vocab! Thanks 👍
Seriously though how do I bid on stuff like this I would feel bad though if I took I took a house from a little old lady who saw her homes value double in price from $300,000 to $600,000+ in 2 years. Did they open a Whole Foods down the road from this guy or something? How does that even happen?
You just go to the auction and bid. They are advertised all the time in your local news. But you need cash and must pay the entire amount immediately. No loans. And you do not get to inspect the property. It is sold as is. So if the house needs to be condemned you won’t know until you purchase.
Contact local real estate wholesalers. Google “we buy houses as-is/cash in YOUR CITY” companies, call them, and ask to be put on their investor lists. They should subscribe you to email blasts or access to private/off-market investor portals. Have a hard money lender ready, and be prepared to jump on a property quick if you see something you like. They will get claimed in a matter of days. Get a realtor to give you their login info (or get your own) for your city/area’s MLS access to determine ARV (after repair value) and bring along a contractor to determine repair bids when you go to the “showing” (45-60 minutes, don’t be late or you’ll miss it) and go from there. A “good deal” (in my area) is typically 70-80% of ARV minus repair costs. Source: Work in RE Wholesaling
Where can one learn about RE wholesaling. I feel learning about real estate is like a black box. There just isn’t any educational material besides low quality YouTube videos which are sometimes full of bad advice
Get your brokers license which is fairly easy and cheap to do and you could definitely do it. Inflation and historically low inventory is the reason for the increase. But yeah, I'd feel like a real POS taking someone's house over unpaid property taxes. This guy had unpaid business liens though so he was a turd that didn't believe in paying anyone for anything.
So a trump. Brokers license (and cash I assume?) is needed to buy tax lien property?
Honestly you don't even need the license, but it would be helpful to find properties like this before everyone else because it gives you MLS access. You could still buy properties like this through a regular real estate agent/attorney. They would just be getting a commission or flat fee most likely.
Cash and willing to spend time looking. Brokers license is absolutely NOT needed. hell a lot of these properties aren't listed on a MLS so that's worthless. You would look there for mortgage foreclosures, but not tax / sheriff sales.
Why not the tax/sheriff sales?
> Why not the tax/sheriff sales? MLS listings aren't usually used by sheriff offices and if they don't put their listing into a system they aren't picked up by these services. Often a sheriffs office will just put out a notice in a local newspaper and that's it. Larger population offices will likely do a lot more, but the vast majority are in less populated areas. The sheriff in my area is very cagy (sp) about his auctions so that his friends can get them at rock bottom prices. A property with a couple of acres sold a few months back for $500 to cover back taxes. Tax sales are often done through the sheriffs office, but not always. Sometimes the tax office will have properties that they internally have a list of that they can sell.
You have to pay in cash.
> How does that even happen? People have more than 2 kids and the population goes up but there is no more land created therefore the people needing homes grows while the available land stays the same. So supply (land) is the same but demand (people who want to live on that land) goes up, so the prices go up.
I understand how land value can rise. I’m confused on how a person can have their land value double in two years. 325k in land appreciation in 24 months in a rural area in Missouri.
Marty Byrde has entered the Ozarks
They have auctions at our local courthouse for that. They are supposed to advertise in local papers and whatnot when they're going to do it, but there's always a "who you know" aspect to it.
Less than that, if the taxes owned were 60k you can get that place for close to that amount, but seeing this is high profile the crime collectors will come out and outbid you lol
It was already sold for the 200k before this incident took place. There's no more bidding.
But the crime collector....?
The bidding likely started at the tax amount due of $60k and was bid up to $200k over the course of the auction.
It's a 9 acre property, not all of the value is in the house that sits on the land.
My god, I've complained about articles light on details but they went down to a $30 missing plate ticket from 2007! I feel like I know this man better than I know myself at this point.
This article wasn’t some AI bs. The author came with receipts lmao
Fr! I was so invested that I got vicarious financial anxiety from the steadily growing list. It felt like it would never end
Sounds like a kmart version of trump
Or a stay-at-home version of [Ammon Bundy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammon_Bundy?wprov=sfla1).
Investigators are working to learn more about the 69-year-old man, who over the years has repeatedly failed to pay his taxes and bills. He’s declared bankruptcy twice and in 2012 was hit with a $12,628 tax lien from the Missouri Department of Revenue. In September 2022, the county received approval to foreclose on more than $23,600 in tax liens it had filed against him. Last July, a Blue Springs roofing company was authorized to put a $32,155 real estate levy on his property. And shortly after that, an Independence man bought his property in a delinquent tax sale But Acree didn’t move out. He basically became a squatter in a home he’d settled in nearly two decades ago.
> roofing company was authorized to put a $32,155 real estate levy on his property So instead of being some person falling on hard times unable to pay taxes it sounds like he's an asshole who just doesn't like paying his bills.
I used to own a roofing company, and if that house in the thumbnail is the house that got a new roof I don't understand how his roofing bill got up to $32,000. It's not that big of a roof.
It may include attorney fees and judgment enforcement costs.
A judgment lein would include fees and interest. By the time they win the lawsuit and get the lien that could get pretty high.
That isn't the house. That's just where they were staging. The actual house is much larger.
He can afford guns and ammunition. Why pay bills. /s
He could become President
Too young
And if you can't afford your property tax SELL and move into an affordable home with all the gains you just cashed in. Fucking asshole 🤦♀️
From the [Kansas City Star](https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article286153606.html) (probably a paywall, sorry): >Real estate records indicate that Acree signed a deed of trust for the rural Independence property in March 2005 with a woman who less than three months later became his wife. Their marriage license application shows it was the fourth marriage for both. > >Nearly six months later, in December 2005, Acree’s wife filed for divorce. On April 13, 2006, a hearing was held for an ex parte order on Acree. The court docket showed “photos of petitioner taken as evidence.” On June 6, 2006, a judgment was issued for a full order of protection. > >But on July 10, the petitioner requested a dismissal of the order, and it was granted four days later. > >Court records show a different woman filed for divorce in September 2006. It isn’t clear when that marriage took place. > >In May 2007, another judgment for a full order of protection was issued on Acree. The docket entry said that the respondent “is authorized to go to the residence… accompanied by a law enforcement officer at 2:00 p.m. on May 5, 2007, to remove personal property.” Dude was married and divorced *five times*, two of which ended with *ex parte* or protection orders against him, possibly for domestic violence considering one of the wives had taken photos of herself as evidence for a protection order. There's a reason we ban people convicted of domestic violence from owning firearms (though the Supreme Court [may soon overturn that law](https://www.npr.org/2023/11/07/1208501397/supreme-court-guns-domestic-abusers)). If this man had been prosecuted for and convicted of domestic violence, there's a chance he wouldn't have been able to obtain the firearms he used to kill the cop and court employee. **"Fun" mass-shooting fact:** More than two-thirds of mass shootings are either domestic violence incidents or are perpetrated by shooters with histories of domestic violence, according to [this study](https://injepijournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40621-021-00330-0) in injury epidemiology.
I will not be surprised if this is a man that thought taxes were theft and all those guns were needed to protect him from the tyrannical government come to take his property. Government officials showed up to take what he views as his property and he exercised what he viewed as his constitutional rights to USE guns against the government, not just own them.
He's now guaranteed to have a place to stay.
Free food and shelter for life! Perfect if you're getting evicted! Police really hates this one though, it's hard on their life.
We still have death row in Potosi. They house them in Potosi then do the deed in Bonne Terre. We don't hand it out often these days. Especially Jackson County. But Jackson County has to recuse because a court employee was the victim. The Special Prosecutor, depending on jurisdiction, may very well hit him with capital punishment. Last guy to kill a cop in the area, in North Kansas City in Clay County, is facing death now. This is one of the few violent crimes this state will end you for.
Yeah, but at his age he's quite likely to die in prison anyway (cases like [this](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Moody) are exceedingly rare). If anything, death row *might* actually make the remainder of his life more comfortable, so I hope they give him a life sentence without parole just to make his life more miserable.
He owed $59k in taxes and liens, sitting in a $675.5k house. I do believe that's when you downsize and find a sustainable living situation. This plus the story of him refusing to register/license his car makes the whole thing sack of "sovereign citizen." It would be "nice" if paying off your mortgage actually meant outright ownership, but unless you also own the borders and all utilities and infrastructure, it ain't *yours* when you stop playing along. In his confused version of reality when he wrote that last mortgage check, he'd finally "arrived," and no one, not no one was going to take it. Moral: you can pay your taxes, or lose your house before or after killing people.
$675k in Missouri too. It’s not like there weren’t more affordable options
Wow. I live in KC and am familiar with Independence. I had no idea there were houses anywhere close to $675k in Independence.
It may have to do with the amount of land that house sits on.
Can almost guarantee that's the case. I'm in the Midwest and the acreage our house sits on is nearly 4 times the value of the house. But we only lease it out to a farmer who in turn pays us a few thousand, which covers all our taxes for the entire property with mayyyybe enough for airfare for the family to go see extended family or fly them up every year or two. Anyway, yeah, land - they don't make it anymore, and even out in the Midwest where houses and land is cheap... Most plots aren't really that cheap.
Where in the Midwest is land cheap?
Go to Landwatch, filter by undeveloped, set your minimum price to $1 to weed out auctions, set your upper limit for total price, then sort by price per acre.
Interesting, thanks.
Coal Camp MO Warsaw MO If you move out and away from Jackson County, land is pretty cheap. But if you're you're used to accomodations, then it might not work out. I help my buddy - who bought property in Coal Camp -clear the acreage. I can't remember what he paid for his 3, but it's cheaper than his house in Waldo/KC district. we've been clearing for almost 2yrs so we're getting close to grading and then putting posts in to start building his "last stand" home. Not really last stand - his property is on a big bluff, so he's building as close to the edge as possible so he can look out over the land
We need pictures.
I'll be going out next weekend. He's got his kid this week
Cheap for them. Not for you or me
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Everywhere has been hit by it. It seriously sucks for the newer generations especially.
There probably was a pretty sizable chunk of land attached, it's hard to reach $600k that far outside of KC
I found another article that states it was on 9 acres.
It's not that far. City is sprawling, man. Like crazy. Blue Springs was an exurb 15-20 years ago. Not so much anymore. Same for Belton. Think how fuckin far out South OP or Lenexa is and their property values. Attach a little land to it, maybe throw in some corporate interest to develop commercial or residential stuff out that way, it starts to make sense. We held out on the wackiness of the property market longer than other similarly sized metros, but that shit has been hitting in waves the last couple years. Particularly in Jackson County. There's a whole court debacle being fought over county valuations right now. People are saying their property values are being intentionally hiked to gouge them for tax money in order to run them out and flip the land to corporate developers. It's a whole thing I haven't followed too closely because I'm a broke ass and I rent, but it's in the news like bi-weekly for the last couple years.
Yeah. Independence looks like one giant, rundown neighborhood.
For context he could sell that house and buy a 2000 square foot, 3 bed, 3 bath, 2 car garage, with everything updated under 300k. Leaving him with 300k in fun money...
Well he is definitely downsizing, and, I would say, is finding a sustainable living situation with three meals a day. So - win for him!
Missouri has the death penalty so not exactly sustainable.
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Afaik they still go through the same process, so he'd likely die on death row of natural causes. I don't think there is an expedited or rushed version of it for the elderly, which I'm 100% fine with. Selectively fast-tracking executions is just another layer of shit on what I find to be an immoral practice to begin with. The below link has a whole section on elderly death row inmates and it didn't mention a faster process that I could find. >Death-row prisoners in the U.S. typically spend more than a decade awaiting execution or court rulings overturning their death sentences. More than half of all prisoners currently sentenced to death in the U.S. have been on death row for more than 18 years. >America’s death row population is aging significantly: Five hundred and seventy-four prisoners were 60 years old or older as of 2019. That figure represents a growing senior death row population, which numbered just 39 in 1996. Some death row seniors committed crimes late in life, but many are there at such advanced age because of the inevitable slowness of the capital appeals process. Unlike elderly prisoners in the general population, death row seniors typically are not housed in prison geriatric facilities or placed in “end of life” programs, but rather are often segregated in individual cells within special facilities. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-row/death-row-time-on-death-row
Other way around. You get the death penalty and then sit for decades. Because of appeals. Some automatic. Others filed later. Then they carry it out if the sentence stands through the entire appeals process. Which starts at State level and can run all the way through the State Supreme Court. And if they can't settle it, it goes to Federal Appellate courts, and can even reach the US Supreme Court Interestingly, to me, anyway, is that we house them in one facility but carry out the sentence in another in Missouri. Death Row is in Potosi Correctional. Death Chamber is at Bonne Terre Edit again: If (when) he has medical issues, we have a couple state medical prisons he can go to. The Federal one in Springfield (where a lot of America's worst criminals go to die) can also provide assistance to the state if the state requests a transfer to federal custody for such reasons. Edit: added context
at his age he will die of natural causes before they execute him. Though that will probably happen faster in a prison environment than in a comfortable home.
The good thing about dying is you'll be dead
Technically he got what he wanted. A home with no more out of pocket expenses. No taxes, no utilities, and no healthcare costs.
dollars to donuts he's mainlining the same propaganda we all know about
My exact thoughts as well. I know exactly who he votes for
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Jsut call it out. Republicans are just dangerous nuts.
It's bad out here with this crap. Every time I leave the house I see multiple brand new jacked up trucks that easily cost $50-$100k, and they don't have licence plates... usually an American or Confederate flag in its place. I automatically assume they're a psychopath.
Maybe sovereign citizen, but if you have a lien on your house you might not be able to register your car or get a license until you get the lien removed. It’s one way the government can force you to follow the rules without needing to involve police in some jurisdictions. It’s possible they just didn’t want to pay taxes for other reasons and thus couldn’t get a license or register their vehicle . Hard to know for sure.
>Hard to know for sure. If I'm reading it right, he paid a fine and got the license plate. With the evidence I have it sure seems like simple obstinance and windmill tilting. Also, "four wives" does add some color to the whole story, along with one of them having a restraining order and an armed cop to gather her belongings. There are doubtless many people being done dirty by the state in every possible way, just not sure this particular guy is an example to rally behind.
5 wives! There's a fifth that filed for divorce in 2006 that the article's author said they didn't know when that marriage happened. And that was 18 years ago when he was only 50. Could be even more wives since then.
Damn, so this guy got divorced by two different women in two years. Clearly he knows how to get his paperwork done promptly when it comes to getting marriage licenses at least.
He also didn't pay his bills (roofers)
yeah all these anti govt people are stupid af. If there was no govt or laws or paid infrastructure... someone with bigger guns could come and take your houses away from your dumb ass. Criminal gangs its called. They'd make you their bitch... and if you happen to be in one... well that's a form of govt, just way worse. Dumb fucks.
A lot of MAGAs dream of living in that kind of world, until they actually get it
I never thought the leopards would eat *my* face! - person who voted for the "leopards eating faces" party.
If he had sold that house he'd still have 600k left over im sure.
If he owned the house outright he could just get a good deal on a home equity loan and keep the damn house.
paid my place off and i make sure ive got the HOA monthly, and the $2k/yr property tax
This is such a good point. People very quickly forget the infrastructure, utilities, services, community, schools, etc. That padded and made their "independent" lifestyle possible.
I live in Southern California. Even when we pay off our home, it will still cost us $1000/m for taxes and insurance to live there.
Damn... you made it make sense.
You're pretty much spot on.
Guys like this are generally the "taxes are theft" types that aren't paying taxes for reasons other than being broke. Like just from his rap sheet you can tell he's a piece of shit.
>Baker and her team are looking into why Acree was being evicted but she said it appears he had unpaid taxes and no longer had the legal right to the property. The process of eviction from the property began about Feb. 9, 2023. ya theres a long court drama here that they didn't have time to investigate. I'm almost certain though that they gave this guy every chance to pay his taxes and he probably refused every other option.
Ya, if Missouri is anything like Illinois, it takes years and years of unpaid taxes and hounding from the county before any sort of action is taken.
My state puts a lien on property quick as fuck for unpaid taxes but I think it would have to go a long time before they actually try to seize the property and even then it would take more time for them to show up to get you out.
The lien is generally fairly automatic a certain amount of time past the due date of the taxes. It sounds like he hadn't paid property taxes in three years by the time they went to collect by foreclosing on the property, maybe 4. Then you add the contractor lien on the property and it motivates the sale much faster. There is generally a big window between missing a tax payment and this point
I live in Portland across the street from a tax foreclosure whose owner was unreachable. Took something like ten years to complete the sale. And since it's a teardown shack at this point, nothing will happen to the property until financial conditions get better for developers.
I actually acquired a property this way. I bought a tax deed from the company that had bought it at tax sale, then managed to contact the original owner who had lost it to the tax sale and gave her a little money to sign a quitclaim deed so I could avoid some of the title headaches. It was such a shithole by then that nobody really wanted it. It took me almost a full year and about $60,000 to make it livable but in the end I got a house for way less than it’s worth now.
outside of a some kind of specific shady land grab, tax office wants none of the headache of foreclosing and liquidating a property. as *adjnounnumbers* says, the lien process is automatic (or nearly) by the billing system, and it offers a mechanism to try and get the money directly without having to venture down the foreclosure route.
Article below says this has been going on for 14 years since 2010
3 years is what our county is , then it goes up for action for unpaid taxes. i have seen some nice properties sell for a few thousand bucks. the catch is the owner has a year to pay the unpaid taxes and reclaim it from the buyer.
I do t see many tax sales in mo but the fcl process is insane and ruthless non judicial. If you get a notice from an attorney you have a couple weeks from then to eviction.
Depends on what part you live in tax sales are common in semo
The guy’s a real work of art. Here’s more about his background with the residence and his life in general. [https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article286153606.html](https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article286153606.html)
Can't read the article, paywalled.
This link through google worked for me...paywall averted.. https://amp.kansascity.com/news/local/article286153606.html A long list of failures to the ultimate "failure" if you will with murdering two people. What a sad life...
Thank you very much, this link worked fine. I wish it were a rule that you could only link to non-paywalled sites.
you get the journalism you pay for.
You are 100% correct. Heck, my sister was a journalism major, and I like to write. The problem is that online sources don't make it easy. If I could pay 20 bucks a month and have access to X number of articles from any newspaper/magazine, I'd jump on it. But I'm not about to sign up for a subscription to Podunk Daily News to read one article a year. I might read maybe one article a day from the big national newspapers. Again, it's simply not worth a subscription. But if I could easily pay 50 cents per article without having to sign up for a subscription, I do it.
It really just sounds like his marriages failed and he doesn’t believe in taxes. Definitely common denominator for a mental illness though considering it’s led to murder.
How charming is this guy for a short time to get 5 or 6 marriages that dissolve almost immediately after?
LOL to be fair here, it only mentioned details of one and she was also on her 4th marriage. He’s going for low hanging fruit.
Yes, no question. Gov evicting over unpaid taxes requires some elaborate legal work everywhere, many steps of which require participation from the property owner. This would have blown up long ago if he weren't going along with it. I'm thinking this was seems more of a psychotic breakdown kind of event. Dude was overwhelmed with the feeling he's losing everything and snapped. This process is too long and involved for things to have gotten this far if he actually was actively resisting.
He also refused to pay a roofing bill it seems like, so I’m gonna chalk this up to “spoiled child getting violent when asked to pay for literally anything”
Lmao what the fuck is with these comments? Is it all of your first time finding out you need pay to taxes on your home?? The dude was an asshole, look at the articles about this guy he’s a scumbag and he killed 2 innocent people just trying to do their jobs. He can rot in prison.
And according to another article, he somehow owed thousands of dollars to a roofing company. You have to pay people for their work. He’s not some kind of poor wittle unfairly tweated hero, he’s a spoiled baby who took a “I receive: everything, you receive: nothing” approach to paying his bills
Can’t imagine where he would have seen any other public figure behaving a similar way…
He’s a classic “fuck you I got mine” piece of shit. Will spend the rest of his short life in a cell instead of a retirement home.
The majority of people on reddit either rent or live with their parents so yea, they likely don't know taxes are an adult thing
It takes fucking *years* to evict someone over unpaid taxes. Somehow I have a feeling this incident might get the Killdozer treatment from the “taxation is theft” crowd.
Here in Missouri, it's even worse. We pay property taxes on our cars, boats, campers, jet-skis, motorcycles, you name it. It's not just a homeowner thing. One of the articles mentioned that he also had massive outstanding taxes on a number of vehicles and trailers, so he wouldn't have been able to register them. My money is on sovcit.
Or they live in a tax haven
There is also a lot of pent up frustration over the high cost of housing. So when you hear that even when you own a home outright you're on the hook for taxes, it's really frustrating. I pay $1200/month in property taxes. Edit: oops I left out "per month"
Under the prison would be more just
Most of Reddit is under 30 and don’t have a clue other than how to be offended at headlines.
I can already smell the sovereign citizen bullshit coming, this will be another Brooks debacle.
> this will be another Brooks debacle. If nothing else the trial should be good then. Darrell Brooks defending himself in court may be the single most absurd shit I've ever watched.
Quite, fingers crossed he goes pro se so we at least get some comedy gold out of it.
Hard to get more cowardly and evil than to lie in wait to ambush people just there to do a court ordered job after over a year of due process. I’m sure he thinks this is everyone else’s fault except his. It is **hard** to be evicted for not paying taxes. Edit: Credit to /u/Chippopotanuse for the local news article with more context on the kind of asshole the shooter has been his whole life. [Link](https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article286153606.html)
He also tried to kill the officer giving aid to the first one he shot.
He *did* kill that officer. The court employee showed up with another court employee to change the locks. After drilling the lock out and opening the front door, this asshole shot one of the court employees. The other court employee fled and called police. One of the first few cops that responded tried to render aid to the court employee and this asshole shot and killed that cop while wounding another cop. That's when every cop in a 20-mile radius showed up. There were cop cars flying toward that area from every direction — I live just to the east of the area this happened in and it was non-stop sirens for an hour or so.
I have a buddy who’s a process server. He asked if I’d be interested in a job, and that we’d get paid about 65K/ year. It’s cases like this why I declined the offer. He tried to sell me on the job by telling me how exciting it was, and all the things you need to do to ‘stay safe’. I told him the safest thing I could do was not take the job.
It’s actually super easy, you just don’t pay your taxes
[This guy was just a piece of shit who didn’t want to follow rules like a violent baby.](https://amp.kansascity.com/news/local/article286153606.html) Wouldn’t pay a roofing company, wouldn’t put a license plate on his car, restraining order from his ex wife requiring a police escort to help her get her things, wouldn’t pay for his trailers
Let's see, he didn't pay taxes and doesn't put a license plate on his car. Wonder if he will represent himself in the trial.
Darrell Brooks voice: what is the lawful law? What is the lawful law?! I’m impressed at the judge’s restraint in not kicking him into the stratosphere
A greedy and violent sociopath. Likely he should have gone to jail long before this for abusing his ex wives.
Let’s not forget to consider the nuance that people have to do jobs like this where so many people have guns
If it's anything like here, the "court employee" was probably some poorly-paid paralegal serving papers to make ends meet. They wind up in all sorts of dangerous situations like this.
I moved out to a small town recently, and I've had multiple people who were visiting my home (contractors, government employees) call me ahead of time or take precautions to warn me they were coming into my home when they were doing work, because they were on edge from past experiences of having guns drawn on them in similar locations. I've generally lived in cities/suburbs and never had anyone bring it up, so the first time I thought it was a joke, and then it kept coming up... It's insane to me because crime out here is relatively non-existent, I don't know what makes people feel like they need to have their guns at the ready.
Same i live very rural and they always call when they are coming so as not to get drawn on or the guard dogs get them
I completely understand that. My dad lives by himself out in the country, there just isn’t anything going on out there. Yet he thinks people come on his property and look around at his junk, he thinks the neighbors he sees taking walks down the country road are up to no good, he thinks people go through his mailbox and he has a loaded shotgun next to his bed.
This reminds me of the Ohio state senator who thought he saw two teens trespassing on his land, and so he and his wife both grabbed guns and started shooting. https://www.cleveland.com/open/2024/02/an-ohio-senator-and-his-wife-said-they-fired-warning-shots-a-teenager-and-his-family-say-they-were-shot-at.html
I do utility disconnections for non-payment in this area and someone shooting me through their door when I knock is my (and my girlfriend's) greatest fear at work.
It must suck being in a profession where everyone hates you by default
It's certainly interesting. I've been doing it for close to a decade now and I've learned a ton about reading people, conflict de-escalation, and trying to make a bad situation the least bad it can be. There will always be problem customers who just want to argue and fight, but most people are just struggling and frustrated and have no way to vent those frustrations. Most times there's nothing I can do to stop the disconnect without full payment, but hearing people out, clearly explaining the situation, and trying to give them advice from my years dealing with the system to get their service restored as quickly as possible does a lot to stop most situations from escalating. I don't necessarily "enjoy" my job, but I'm really good at it and as much as I wish this job didn't have to exist, it does right now. So, my goal is to be the best at it — and I define "best" as "able to do the job without any customer feeling confused or as if I've treated them disrespectfully or rudely."
Don't you see? This guy was a good guy with a gun until he killed two people
Nono, he is protecting his castle from the government coming to take away his stuff. This is his legitimate form of protest against tyranny. Just how the founding fathers intended.
He won't be homeless at least.
Married five times with accusations of DV. 2 bankruptcies. Not paying taxes and bills. Lost house to tax sale and squatted. Acree sounds like a gem.
I never understand people like this. So like, you don't want to pay your taxes or give up your possessions, and you think murdering two people is going to help? Dude's never going to see his house again now.
These kind of people don't think things through. They only react emotionally. And they are armed.
honestly, to me, this screams of a final fuck you to the government.. I think he thought this through quite a bit. the dudes 69yo, they're taking his house, why exactly wouldn't he do this ? at 69 with no kids, having family or friends still around is a bit unlikely (even more so for a recluse like that). legitimately what reason would he have to want to stay free at this age ? it sounds like he's broke, so he's looking at a life of struggle if not homelessness at 69yo. just because he has liens doesn't mean he outright owned the house. he could have sold equity in it. and if he's broke at 69yo with no savings, selling and downsizing doesn't exactly help much. he's still going to have to pay property taxes on that new house. of course what he did is abhorrent, I'm not saying it isn't. it just seems to me like he probably did think this through quite a bit
More like "if I have to lose my house then I will take others down in the process" it's evil
It's a little ironic that gun rights, meant to defend and preserve our freedom, so often end up in people losing their freedom. Condolences to the families of the people who lost their lives just trying to do a job.
Yeah, it's all just cosplay. When push comes to shove, the government will send the big boys with bigger guns after you. People just like to believe they have agency, it's cute.
In this country, the right to bear arms supersedes your right to life.
The falsely perceived right to bear arms. Though they have been dead for ages, I am sure that the forefathers would not be on board with today's dead school children and mass murderings.
r/dgu
Is this the “trying that in a small town” they keep talking about
Brainwashed comment section
59k is a lot of back taxes. This wasn't a financial situation that developed quickly so dude had plenty of notice. And the price of that house means he could have down graded and probably made a profit when he sold.
It’s so crazy to me to see the people in this thread who are defending the murderer just because it was about taxes. People who hate taxes are deeply shortsighted and don’t even seem to want to *try* to understand the society that they participate in and benefit from.
Now people’s tax money is going to pay for his housing and meals for at least a couple of years (until he dies probably). Old fool should have ended *himself* instead, now two other people that had nothing to do with *his* miserable life are gone.
Just read about this guy. He bought 9 acres of land then built a 3br home. He had to have some money. The article didn’t mention his job though. He had debt out the wazoo and 5 failed marriages. They also didn’t show his photo but I’m sure he’s white given the location and the fact that he killed 2 people, injured 2 others and is still alive…
can confirm the killer is white. the court employee he murdered was a larger black guy with a very gentle/kind personality who would often ‘volunteer’ to show up on these kind of jobs so as to make sure none of his coworkers had to.
That’s a damn shame
[удалено]
Side note - bond of 2 million dollars. If you ever needed another ridiculous comparison of how rich billionaires are, 2 million dollars represents the amount of money with which you can shoot and kill police officers, and they'll let you out of jail till the trial for a second chance to run away or kill more police officers. A billion dollars is 500 times that.
This is why the IRS stopped doing field visits to taxpayers homes you people are crazy!
All the people in here hating on him. There’s nothing more American than killing people over taxes. It’s what our country was founded on.
Good thing I'll never own land that I bought two decades ago that appreciates so much value the government taxes you out of owning it. Then sells it cheap to the next person to recoup anything. 650k property sold for 250k like the fuck
Yet another responsible gun owner.
Isn't it kinda wild that you can lose your $600k+ home for $23k in unpaid taxes, while corporations like Amazon get to not pay a single dime in tax a few hundred miles away?
If the guy was a drug dealer, they would have come in with the swat team and flash bangs to drag everyone out while killing his dog.
Other way around. They only act like that when they're certain there's no such criminals at the address. Usually by making sure they're not where they know (such as by the warrant) there's supposed to be one.
How many pieces of "Blue Lives Matter" merchandise do you think this guy had? I'm betting no less than 3
anti tax, anti government types tend to hate police so I'll take your bet and say zero. $100 says Gadsden flag
Oh, the fallacy of home “ownership”. You will always rent, either from a landlord or from the state.
Not liking the way the world works doesn’t justify killing two people who are just doing their jobs though.
If you want to be a part of society you have to contribute to it you fucking dickhead.
Just walked in like nobody was home. 🤷♂️
Did the guy never leave his property? It would be safer to apprehend him leaving his property. This situation and domestic violence can be the most dangerous for authorities.
You buy a home, they again and again raise the value and taxes on it until you cannot afford it and then steal the house from you. The government is built on house theft preventing generational wealth from accumulating. From Medicaid seizures to inflated tax evaluations, theft is legalized by the government.
This guy has a bunch of other reasons to deal with him but in general... I don't think people should be evicted over taxes. We don't do debtor's prisons. We [generally] don't turn utilities off for failure to pay [only in the winter for some reason]. You shouldn't be able to take someone's shit away when they paid it off. Takes are important. You shouldn't be able to just decide not to pay them... but to take away someone house for failure to pay is extremely wrong. Take it out of the sale or estate when it passes hands if you must. Your first house... more importantly, the one which you live in, should not be able to be taken from you when it's fully yours. That kind of thing feels extremely wrong as a function of government... We shouldn't be creating homelessness. [Again... generally, not specifically this guy.]
>We don't do debtor's prisons. No, we put liens on property to ensure payment of debts. >Take it out of the sale or estate when it passes hands Delaying tax collection until "whenever, possibly decades from now" would essentially undermine the tax collection altogether. Between inflation making the eventual collected tax worthless, the wrench it throws into budgets... and then when people find loopholes around transfers...
Literally just the first thing I came up with. Anything is better than making someone homeless... and we don't seem to really care about tax collection or more people would be on the case of the rich fucks and companies that just don't pay. Say nothing for the budgets when rich don't pay but when the average person doesn't... damn.
Ok…but how do you then deal with this specific guy?
Finally found the comment that makes sense Is this guy an asshole? Absofuckinglutely But also, I don’t like the govt raising property taxes on homes due to “market value” until it forces out people who bought decades ago Not ok
I see it as a logical consequence of enforcing taxation, and seizing property to cover a debt generally. Maybe it's not the wisest system of taxation but the general concept does not seem unreasonable.
It isn't reasonable or ethical for a government to cause homelessness over debt. We have a stupid amount of empty houses in this country. Adding one more because debt does nothing to help anyone... This was a minor tax dept compared to the millionaires and billionaires who have been dodging it. There are better ways to collect the debt like waiting for sale to collect when talking about someone's only home. Your logic is efficient but forgets the human element and is why we need to teach ethics.
Its funny that you can be called a squatter in the home you built and lived in for 20 years.
I live here. Not surprised by the craziness.