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Avondale Two-Flat Haunted By Ex-Owner, Who's Very Much Alive

(CBS) -- A 31-year-old man says he feels like he's trapped in a bad movie script:  He owns a two-flat in the Avondale neighborhood and he's gotten three eviction notices from a previous owner who still claims it's her property.

WBBM's Steve Miller reports.

"So, I moved in, and I saw this full vegetable garden in my back yard," begins Phillip Keefe.

He bought the two-flat in the 3100 block of North Springfield a year ago. Within a week, he encountered a woman who owned the building previously.

"She was coming by to check her vegetables," Keefe says. "I had no fences or gates."

He does now. He also has an order of protection against the woman, who behaved erratically. He says she has sent him letters telling him to get out.

"Then she would start calling the police on me every day. And she would say, 'Hey there's an intruder in my house,'" Keefe says.

WBBM's Steve Miller

Somehow, she was able to file three eviction notices.

"My credit score is obviously taking a hit because there's an attempted eviction," Keefe says. "There's all the costs associated with going to court -- not just financial, but my time. It's time away from work."

Keefe says his heart goes out to her. But he says there must be some resolution.

The Cook County Sheriff's office is now investigating, and a spokesperson says they will get it completely resolved so that Keefe doesn't have to keeping fighting eviction notices.

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