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A pair of alleged racist Long Island squatters who haven't paid their mortgage in more than a decade appear to have finally moved out a week after The Post exposed their “abuse” of the court system.
Bobby Chawla, whose family bought the house 22 months ago at a bank auction, said moving trucks were seen in the driveway of the four-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,536-square-foot home on Friendly Lane in Jericho on Wednesday, but were unable to make it. To move because accused squatters Barry and Barbara Pollack won't leave.
By Friday, the house appeared empty and the Pollack family was nowhere to be seen.
“It feels like a Christmas miracle, I can't believe it,” said Chawla, who cannot officially take control of the home without a judge's approval.
“I felt a sense of relief. . . . but I won't be satisfied until I have my own home. This man cannot be trusted.”
The Pollack family bought the house in September 1990 for $255,000, but by 2006 they fell into financial trouble and ended up fighting in three different courts for 17 years to stay in it.
The house ended up at a bank auction after the couple sued for foreclosure in 2008, and the case was delayed for 11 years, records show.
They then began filing “skeletal” and “frivolous” bankruptcy filings, according to court papers.
The filings automatically halted any eviction process temporarily — including in November, when the movers the Chawla family hired to vacate the house had to abandon those efforts after Barbara Pollack showed up with bankruptcy papers.
Barry Pollack appeared in a video asking the Chawla family, whose parents are from India, to “go back to Pakistan.”
On Friday, a federal bankruptcy judge barred the Pollack family from filing further filings.
“While most debtors are honest, hard-working individuals looking for a fresh start in bankruptcy, these debtors are not,” said Heath Berger, the Chaolas' attorney.
“We hope they have filed their final petition in bankruptcy court.”
Barry Pollack did not return a message.
Additional reporting by Dennis Clark.
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