If you were lucky enough to have a swimming pool in your back garden, would you be cool with strangers turning up and randomly taking a dip? That’s exactly what occurred to a home owner in Stockton, California recently. Specifically, a homeless woman decided to trespass onto private property and go for a plunge in a stranger’s back yard’s pool. Of course, the owner wasn’t best pleased, so they called the police, which resulted in a bizarre incident, all caught on camera.
The one-minute snippet of footage is presumably recorded by the owner of the Stockton property, and is accompanied by the description, “Homeless lady takes a swim in someone’s backyard pool‘. Taking place in the property’s back garden, the clip centers on a swimming pool in sunny California. In the pool, however, is a homeless lady with a white top who is bobbing around in the water with a multicolored float. Surrounding the pool are several police officials who have been called to the disturbance.
“This is the lady that broke into the house and now she’s broke into their house and won’t get out of their pool.” states the cameraman. Shortly after, you can hear the homeless woman yelling at the police, “You agree? Do you f*cking agree?” The person recording responds, “Come over and talk to me.” It’s difficult to discern what the woman is saying, as it’s a little unclear, but it sounds like she’s saying, “Don’t you touch me anymore.”
A police officer attempts to reason with the woman, stating, “Okay, we can talk about it. But you gotta get out the pool.” To this, the homeless lady requests, “Next job, you gotta throw me my wallet.” before asking, “Why are you forcing me?” After a brief back and forth, a police officer near the woman grabs her by the shoulders, while another officer attempts to use a long swimming float stick to help fish her out of the water, but it snaps in half. A few police officials scramble to drag her out of the pool, with the woman yelling things like, “What are you doing?” and “Oh my!” before the clip comes to an end.
At the time of writing, details remain scarce about the bizarre incident. It’s currently unclear whether the woman was charged for trespassing. Nevertheless, it didn’t take long for social media users to chime in with their thoughts on the footage.
One user on Instagram wrote, “She’s trespassing. Go to a community pool if you want to swim. The owner has every right to call the police. I would have done the same thing if I found some stranger on my property.” while another chipped in with, “Now they have to clean the pool.” Others, however, sided with the homeless lady, with one penning, “Let her swim poor lady …she don’t bother anyone….have some respect please …..🙏…”
This incident serves as a reminder of the growing challenges faced by the homeless and the urgent need for compassionate, long-term solutions. As temperatures rise and housing insecurity worsens, communities must find a balance between public safety and support for vulnerable individuals who are often left with nowhere else to turn.