Owner tours rental ’embassy,’ finds piles of clothes, dirty dishes

CALGARY – A woman has seen her Calgary rental home for the first time since a self-proclaimed sovereign citizen was removed from the property last week.

Rebekah Caverhill says the man claimed the home as his “embassy” shortly after moving in and she spent nearly two years trying to get him out.

Caverhill was crying as she toured the beige-brick duplex with a throng of reporters and cameras.

Windows were covered with towels, clothing was heaped on floors and dirty dishes were piled in the kitchen.

Alphabet magnets on the refrigerator spelled out the word “respect” and a sign on the door of one room called it a meeting place for people of the Sovereign Embassy of Earth.

Caverhill rented the home to Andreas Pirelli in November 2011 but soon after he identified himself as a follower of the Freemen-on-the-Land, claimed the home as an embassy, changed the locks and placed a lien on the property.

He was arrested Friday morning by police on outstanding warrants from Quebec.