WILSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WTVF-TV) — A man who charged our NewsChannel 5 Investigates crew with an axe said he regrets what he did.
Video of Jude Pishcke picking up an axe and coming after Investigative Reporter Ben Hall went viral back in 2017.
At the time, Pischke moved into an abandoned, luxury Mt. Juliet home after banks foreclosed on its previous owner during the 2008 housing crisis. Our investigation discovered the banks essentially forgot about the home, which allowed Pischke to live there for three years.
Seven years after our report, Pischke sat down for an interview.
"Why did you want to do this interview?" Ben Hall asked.
"Because the last time we met, it shed me in a different light that I want people to know me as. Because that's not me," Pischke responded.
Video from 2017 shows Pischke walking to a pick-up truck filled with tools while we asked him why he was living in the home. Pischke then picked up and axe and charged saying, "Get the f*** out of here. Leave."
Our crew left, and no one was hurt.
But Pischke was convicted of three counts of aggravated assault for coming after Ben Hall, a photographer and a producer.
"I have to say I'm surprised we are sitting across from each other," Ben Hall said.
"Yes sir. I am too," he replied.
"Of all the things, to get an axe and come at somebody, why would you do that?" Ben asked.
"I regret the way I handed it. I should have spoke to you more civilly. I was actually overwhelmed and wasn't thinking straight that day," Pischke said.
The encounter took place in the front yard of the Mt. Juliet home where Pischke and his family had lived for three years. Media around the world picked up the story and called Pischke the Tennessee squatter.
"I've seen interviews in Germany. They took it pretty good over there," Pischke said.
"Someone did a spoof of it saying hillbilly, Dukes of Hazard, just very derogative. Very derogative," Pischke said.
Pischke, who is now 53, owns a home improvement business and said he's stayed out of trouble, but the video continues to follow him.
"If you googled me after I came to your house to give a bid, would you want me to do the job? Or would you be scared of me? Or would give me a $10,000 deposit?" Pischke asked. "I never intended to do anybody any harm in all that. I was trying to get a home for my family that is all."
The home he found was unusually nice.
A video tour shows the luxury log cabin before Pischke moved in, when it was valued at $500,000.
But it sat empty for years.
"I got more curious what to do with an abandoned home that's been forgotten by the banks," Pischke said.
"So you just moved in?" Ben Hall asked.
"Pretty much so yeah," Pischke said. "I turned the power on first. I never even changed the locks. I just turned the power on. I don't lock my door," Pischke said.
After moving in, he paid all back property taxes, as well as added a water heater and a heating and air unit.
"I believe in my full heart that I was there legally, and went about it justly. I believe I was there legally," Pischke said.
He cited a law of adverse possession, which states if someone pays taxes on unclaimed property for 20 years they can claim it.
It is common in property line disputes, but it's rarely used for taking ownership of a home.
"I wasn't hiding. If I would have hid and acted like I didn't live there, it would not have been legal. Now I shouldn't have maybe put a limo in the front yard, but it wasn't like it was a broke down Volkswagen," Pischke said.
Legal or not, that limo in the front yard, along with other cars and trucks he stored on the property, upset neighbors who began questioning who was living in the house.
They contacted NewsChannel 5, and we waded through paperwork to find the New York bank that owned the property.
The bank sent a statement in 2017, thanking us for bringing it to their attention.
"If that would have been somebody's home, not the bank owning it, I wouldn't have done that," Pischke said.
"If somebody says about you, 'He's a squatter. What do you say?" Ben asked.
"No sir. I didn't go squat in somebody's personal residence like in the way you are talking about. People are going on vacation and people are moving in and they can't get them out. That's not what I did," Pischke responded.
And although a judge ordered Pischke to leave after our report, he said the bank paid him $10,000 for keeping up the home, which he said was less than he put into it.
But he said it was worth trying.
"I think the problem with this country is people can't afford to live anywhere anymore. People can't afford a one bedroom apartment," Pischke said.
Pischke now has a home that he didn't just take over.
All these years later, he hopes people can see past that video.
"I don't want four minutes or three minutes of my life to determine what everyone things of the other fifty years of my life," Pischke said.
"I should have handled it totally differently in hindsight," Pischke concluded.
