Illegally evicted and trespassed, belongings sold. VIRGINIA.

LOCATION: Virginia
I started renting the upstairs of a two story home from an elderly lady in late may. I signed a non- notorized lease the lady had typed up.
The upper floor had hook ups for a stove, fridge, ect and I was told the home was at one time two apartments but the lady and her late husband used it as a two story home until recently. I thought it was legit at first.

It wasn’t, and now I see the previous signs and red flags. I was working 4 days on 3 off when I first started the lease, on first shift, but switched to a more normal schedule when I took a promotion into the office of my employer.

June 27th, I was awoken by a strange man standing in my living area. I asked him who he was and all he said was I think you’d better answer that first. This guy was the real owner of the home and I found out I was illegally subletting from the lady. I told the owner I did not know the lady didnt own the home. He said he didnt care and that I needed to leave. I told him sublet or not, by law I had 30 days to vacate and I was a tenant at this point regardless because I’d been there longer than 14 days and had plenty of mail with the address.

He pulled his phone out and called who I presume was his wife and im guessing she called the police. When the police showed up I explained my side, showed the officers the lease and one officer even told me the lady had a criminal back ground of bad checks,fraud, identity theft and had even spent time in a women’s prison in west va in the early 1990s. Like wtf???!.
The officer speaking with the real owner asked if I’d ever been on the lease and the owner said no. I was told to go sit on the steps of the porch and wait.

The leading officer came back with a clipboard in his hands and told me the owner wanted me trespassed. I told the officer by law I was a tenant because I’d been here the allotted amount of time and had mail from regular and government institutes. The officer told me if I didnt sign I would be arrested on the spot. I was baffled. I asked him did I not have 30 days and he said no because I had never been on the real lease and subletting was illegal.

I signed because the police made it very obvious I was going to jail if I didnt. I asked to get some personal items and was initially told no by the owner until I told the police I needed my wallet and some medicine.
When I got into my car to leave, I asked the police what I was supposed to do about the rest of my stuff and the officer who told me about the lady’s past told me I could file in civil court but probably wouldn’t get very far but if I came back to retrieve anything I’d be arrested.

I rented an extended stay hotel room while I figured out what I was going to do and one of my friends later sent me a screenshot and asked if the photo was of my bedroom furniture. The lady had her son take my furniture apart and had it posted for sale on market place. I called the police, showed them proof the furniture was mine and this time, because of the location of the hotel, I dealt with the sheriff’s department, not municipal police and the deputy was baffled at how illegal all of this was!.

I was later sent a hand written eviction notice from the owner, for 5 days, post dated from the day I was trespassed.