A homeowner was left stunned after finding out that a nearly finished four-bed house had been built on his land.
Dr Daniel Kenigsberg's parents had owned the neighbouring property in Fairfield, Connecticut since 1953, and he and his brother bought the half-acre plot next door in 1991.
After his brother died in 2011, he became the sole owner and planned to keep the land for his family.
In 2023, however, a friend informed him that construction had started taking place on his plot.
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On return, Dr Kenigsberg was shocked to discover that a £1.2 million house was being built on it.
Records showed the land had been sold in 2022 for $350,000, but Dr Kenigsberg insisted that the sale took place without his knowledge.
He found out that the land had been offered to 51 Sky Top Partners LLC in October 2022.
Dr Kenigsberg subsequently sued 51 Sky Top Partners LLC on nine counts, and was seeking damages and compensation of up to $2 million (£1.5 million).
His lawyers ordered the company to clear off his land and restore it to how it was before they they bought it.
But as reported by CT, Gina Leto and Greg Bugaj of 51 Sky Top Partners LLC claimed they had fallen victim to a scam.
As for how this could have happened, consumer protection lawyer Kevin Kneupper suggested that someone had forged documents, claiming they had a legal right to sell the land on Dr Kenigsberg's behalf.
The developers suggested that someone impersonated Dr Kenigsberg and used forged documents to fraudulently sell the property.
Taking to TikTok, Kneupper explained: "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.
"But in many places, you just search online, they'll have databases, 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."
The dispute was eventually settled out of court in 2024 and Dr Kenigsberg received undisclosed financial compensation.
CT reports that the developers kept legal ownership and finished construction.
Anish Vij