I wrote about this story back in September. At the time it had already been going on for more than a year. It involves a house worth millions of dollars in one of the nicest parts of the city. The owner was a Chinese family who used to visit occasionally when their son was in school. But the owners haven't been seen in several years and since last fall two squatters have (allegedly) been fighting over the property.
In the past 14 months, the house in Sea Cliff has been deeded eight times, passing back and forth between [Brandon] Aadee and [DIana] Peng, who both have felony convictions for identity theft. The notaries named on most of the deeds say they never signed them...
Of the hundreds, if not thousands, of San Francisco homes that police allege have been inhabited by squatters (police do not keep an active count but have logged nearly 4,000 squatter-related calls over the past decade), few have flummoxed authorities like 250 32nd Ave. Since 2023, 18 complaints about the property have been made through the city’s 311 line — with reports detailing deteriorating exteriors, public health hazards, cars on the sidewalk, and most recently, unpermitted construction. The San Francisco Fire Department and Animal Care & Control have been out. The city attorney and the district attorney have been investigating the house for more than a year. In total, police have been dispatched to the house more than 30 times — making the property one of the 10 most-called addresses in San Francisco over the last two years.
What it appears happened is that Aadee got into the house and tried to claim it so he could sell it for cash at a steep discount. Then, at some point, Peng came along and the two have been using fake deeds to seize ownership from one another ever since.
Peng appears to have been living in the house along with an unknown number of other people and multiple dogs. As you can see from the description above, the neighbors have been desperate for the city to do something about this and the city's response for more than a year was to ignore it. Finally, the day after it became a major news story, City Attorney David Chiu filed a lawsuit against the two squatters.
And still, nothing much happened until last Friday when police finally raided the house and put Peng in custody.
San Francisco police executed a search warrant Friday morning at a Sea Cliff home that has been at the center of an ownership dispute for months.
The San Francisco Police Department said officers served the warrant at 7:30 a.m. as part of an investigation on the 200 block of 32nd Avenue. Seven dogs at the house were confiscated by Animal Care and Control, the agency said. A witness provided photos to The Standard showing a woman being placed in a patrol car.
According to a "No Trespassing" sign pasted to the door, it was the failure to care for the animals that finally got Peng in trouble.
That notice says a complaint alleging “inadequate care or abandonment” was filed with Animal Care and Control. It says the animals seized and impounded were two adult pit bulls, one 4-month-old pit bull, and four younger puppies. Department spokesperson Deb Campbell said officers had visited the address several times in recent weeks and cited the household for having intact adult pit bulls, breeding pit bulls, and lacking city dog licenses.
Neighbors had reported unleashed dogs roaming the yard. They also described late-night foot traffic, piled-up trash, overgrown vegetation, and a keypad installed on the front door. Some filed complaints with city agencies, including the Department of Building Inspection and the Department of Police Accountability, and said the agencies were slow to act.
Today, Diana Peng is facing a slew of charges related to the dogs but also to drugs and being a felon in possession of a gun.
The woman at the center of a dispute over the ownership of a Sea Cliff home was charged Tuesday by the district attorney’s office with unlawful possession of a controlled substance while armed with a firearm, possession of a firearm by a felon and two counts of possession of ammunition by a felon.
Diana Peng, 42, has also been charged with misdemeanor animal neglect, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of methamphetamine and a driving offense involving a revoked license, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced...
“Oftentimes, our hands are tied by the law and what we’re able to prove, but thankfully we had an investigation and a search warrant that allowed us to be here today to announce these charges,” [DA Brooke] Jenkins said Tuesday. “It really represents vigilant neighbors who we need in all communities to make sure that law enforcement is apprised when crimes are going on so that we can do our jobs to protect them.”
Peng will be arraigned today but then she'll likely be out on bail. Neighbors expect she will immediately return to the house she's been squatting in.
Cameron Will, a 32nd Avenue resident, said Tuesday that he and his neighbors were disappointed that prosecutors did not charge Peng with fraud.
Will said neighbors expect Peng to return to the house as soon as she is released from custody. “The whole street” expects her to go straight to the property and try to remove the boards that secure it, he said.
Here's a local news report on the arrest and search last week. It took the city about 15 months of constant calls and complaints by neighbors to get this far.
Editor’s Note: The American people overwhelmingly support President Trump’s law and order agenda.
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