A Connecticut man was given quite the shock when he learnt that somebody was building a house on land he'd owned since 1991.
Dr. Daniel Kenigsberg was just one year old when his parents bought a house on Sky Top Terrace, Fairfield, Connecticut, which became his childhood home.
In 1991, he bought a half-acre plot of land next door to the home along with his brother, becoming the sole owner after his brother died in 2011.
Dr. Kenigsberg has held on to the land ever since, declining previous offers of up to $400,000 (£314,000) to buy it.
Advert
He'd planned to eventually passed the land down to younger generations of the family until news from a friend sent everything crashing down.
According to CT Insider, last year Dr. Kenigsberg received a phone call from a friend informing him that somebody was building a house on the land.
"I said, 'I own that and I never sold it'. I was shocked," he told Greenwich Time.
Advert
Dr. Kenigsberg swung by the site of his childhood home and was faced with an almost-completed four bedroom house.
It turns out that the land had been 'sold' to 51 Sky Top Partners LLC for $350,000 (£275,000) back in October 2022.
However, according to a lawsuit filed by Dr. Kenigsberg, this had all been done without his knowledge or consent.
He sued the construction company on nine counts, including trespass, statutory theft and unfair trade practices, and is seeking damages of up to $2 million (£1.57 million).
Advert
The lawsuit also ordered them to restore his land to how it was before they 'bought' it.
Gina Leto and Greg Bugaj of 51 Sky Top Partners LLC later claimed that they were the victims of a scam, according to CT Insider, saying someone had impersonated Dr Kenigsberg in order to 'sell' the land.
Consumer protection lawyer Kevin Kneupper suggested that someone may have forged documents, claiming they had a legal right to sell the land on Dr. Kenigsberg's behalf.
Advert
"It's really easy to go find who owns land. If you've never done searches on this, in most counties, you can actually just go, it depends on your state," he said.
"In many places, you just search online, so they could find out real easily who's the actual owner and then just pretend to be him.
"Now, to be clear, his attorney and Mr. Kenigsberg, they are not accusing the people who bought it of being involved. They think that they sort of didn't know what was going on, and that someone in South Africa did this.
"And that's who the police are trying to go after to find where the money actually went to when they paid for it."
Advert
Speaking about the bizarre case, Dr. Kenigsberg added: "I'm angry that so many people were so negligent that this could have happened.
"It's more than obnoxious — it's offensive and wrong."
Bec Oakes