INDIANAPOLIS — Angel Mercado watched from across the street as fire crews fought large fires at three homes in the 400 block of Hamilton Avenue, near Southeastern and South State avenues on the near east side of Indianapolis, shortly before 1 a.m. Monday, Oct. 7.
Mercado said while two of the homes were vacant, people had certainly been living there.
"I've seen them carrying groceries into the place. I've seen them order food and get it delivered to the house and what not," said Mercado, who lives nearby.
An egg carton, juice and plastic bottles are just some of the trash you can see scattered in the front yard.
Greg Buck, who has been living on Hamilton Avenue for 11 years, said he just called the Mayor's Action Center last week to let them know someone had gotten inside one of the homes yet again.
"They come out here, the business and neighborhood services do, and documents and reports it to the owner," Buck said.
According to the city's Department of Business and Neighborhood Services, they've received several complaints for both properties over the last year. One complaint took place in August, stating there were 7-10 people squatting in and outside the home.
Sensational Taste LLC owns the homes. While one of properties showed an out-of-state address for the business, another showed an address on the city's north side.
The address brought 13News reporter Chase Houle to a business plaza, where he learned the owner of the LLC is Adrienne Bardwell. He agreed to meet Houle at the location of his properties and said he bought the properties to build back the neighborhood.
Bardwell said he comes out to the houses every week to kick people out of them.
"You tell them to leave, they come back. I feel like the police should lock them up if you see them out here squatting and you're telling them. They be inside the house. They'll set up the whole house. They be living in the house. You got to kick them out. It just gets old," Bardwell said.
And while the flames may have been hot enough to melt the side of a car, neighbors are still heated over the mess they're left to look at and that the houses weren't turned into homes.
IFD says no one was injured in the fire. How the blaze started is still under investigation.