White shirt. same guy. someone s coming out again. where s he looking? has he gotten something? the man in the striped shirt leaves the apartment, clutching something in his waistband. i m telling you, if he looks over here, he s going to see someone sitting here. scott, licensed to carry, pulls out his handgun. he s coming right over here. he s looking right at us. then, two more men make their way out of the apartment. two guys are coming downstairs. there s just too many eyes on us. yeah. we ve overstayed our welcome. it s a cop. it s a cop. just as we re about to leave,
Every year millions flock to Las Vegas trying to fulfill a dream and win big, but outside, and underground, another world stands in stark contrast; Lisa Ling.
The squad car to continue their interview. so those kids were living in there, no electricity. was there running water in there? not that i know of. absolute cesspool. so the mother and the two kids were just put in the squad car. none of them had any shoes on. after the family has been removed, scott and i are cleared to check out the apartment for ourselves. so there s no furniture in here. no electricity, obviously. like, where do the kids even sleep? oh, my god. just clothes strewn everywhere. a few little toys. so child protective services took the kids away from their
Seen it through big ups and downs, huh? plenty. i remember driving through las vegas. even as a young boy, there was next to nothing out there. desert on either side of the road. now it s house after house after house. americans keep snapping up real estate at a record pace. fortune magazine is calling it the real estate gold rush. vegas went through what much of the country did in the early 2000s the housing boom. you could buy a house for 130 and by the time you closed, it could have been worth 200 or more. did you make pretty good money during that time? we all did. then it all went bust. the bank owned signs are all over town. look at the valley behind me. it is ground zero for the housing crisis. a decade later, the city s foreclosure rates are off the charts. and nearly 14,000 houses are vacant. and scott s properties have become prime real estate for more than just buyers. illegal occupants called
Scott s team has been investigating for weeks. here s how the case got on their radar. north las vegas code enforcement. how may i help you? two weeks ago, the task force received a call from a utility company. yeah, all right. someone had tried to turn on the water with a fake lease. but property records showed that the house was a foreclosure and should be vacant. to top it off, individuals on the fake lease have been caught squatting before. hey man. got another one that we need to take a look at. i ll see you there. that s how we ended up in this middle-class neighborhood at 9:45 on a wednesday. we still play devil s advocate. i want to hear their story. i want to hear their side, see if they are a victim of somebody who absconded the system and took their money. and if they can t provide reasonable enough evidence to