Nature abhors a vacuum, and often wild animals will find an abandoned house and make it their home. Heaphy said that all kinds of Florida wildlife like to take over in the absence of a homeowner—when the grass gets hip-high at an abandoned house, it's a haven for snakes. And he and his agents have stumbled into other animals, including panthers and wild boars. Typically, Heaphy said, those big mammals are more scared of us than we of them, but that's not always the case. "If you find a mother boar with piglets, you don't want to get in her way," he said.
