Homeless living in City of Industry RVs say they were paying rent

It’s now been a week since NBC4 broke the story about the large group of homeless people accused of taking over dozens of RVs in City of Industry.

The owner of those RVs repeatedly said the homeless people broke into dozens of his trailers, but new audio obtained by NBC4 suggests he was making agreements with some of the people to pay him to stay there.

Black Series RV owner Jack Hong Wei Qiu said his company moved their trailers to the lot near Gale and Azusa in City of Industry in 2021, but early last year he said they started dealing with trespassers who stole parts. Eventually, Qiu said dozens of homeless people broke into his trailers.

“It started with one and then up to about 60 to 80 people,” he said to NBC4. “It’s out of control for the last one month, two month.”

Qiu told us one reason why he thinks this problem grew so out of control is because he heard some people made agreements to pay to live there.

"I told them don’t pay rent to anyone because I own the trailers and I never charged rent,” Qiu said.

But several people who lived there told NBC4 not only did they pay rent, they paid Qiu, the Black Series’ owner.

Lena Doktorczyk lived in one of the RVs.

“My husband did pay rent and he paid it to Jack,” Doktorczyk said.

IK, who didn’t want to share his last name with us out of fear for his safety and people who are unaware of his current situation, said he’s been living in one of the RVs for nearly a year and has been paying Qiu $300 per month since November in what he described as a rent-to-own agreement.

“So he came all the way down to $1,300, and I said, 'OK, I can do that,'" IK said.

IK showed what he says is his bill of sale, and he says it’s signed by Qiu. Then he shared audio with NBC4 of a conversation that he says he and his girlfriend had with Qiu where they appear to discuss a $300 per month asking price.

NBC4 asked Qiu if that is his voice in the recorded conversation.

“On the recording, yes,” Qiu said.

Qiu said he is the voice on the recording, but he denied that he signed the purchase agreement or even knew about it. And he said he ultimately never took their money.

“I never collected money from any one of them,” Qiu said.

He said after a trailer caught fire last year, he kicked IK and his girlfriend off the property, but they refused to leave so he said he tried charging them rent in an attempt to keep the peace.

“What would you do? Would you allow these people to be here or kick them out and they will set fire to the trailer,” Qiu said. “I thought that I could come up with a plan, but I never collected money.”

IK is adamant he paid Qiu.

“Wow, that's so crazy. He was collecting money with his own two hands,” IK said. “There was a nice couple here, Robin and Linda. They stood on that freeway over there for three days and panhandled $300 to give to him.”

“None of us have jobs like that, so if we have $300 to hand to you, you know we went through a lot of hell to get that,” IK added.

Qiu insists he didn’t collect money.

“I never collected rent from anyone,” Qiu said. “Not even one dollar.”

Black Series doesn’t own the lot in City of Industry. In fact, an attorney for the land owner said Black Series hasn’t paid rent on the lot since September 2023. So they went to court last fall, and in January, a judge sided with the land owner, which cleared the way for the removal of the trailers and the people living there. The Sheriff’s Department said they helped resolve the private trespassing dispute, but at this point, no other investigation is underway.

Qiu gave NBC4 several different answers about how he plans to handle the damaged and destroyed trailers with insurance. At first he said he didn’t want to disclose. Then he said he thinks he deserves some money from insurance. Ultimately, he said he’s not claiming it and taking it as a total loss. He said it’s a loss of $5 to 6 million in product.

NBC4 reached out to the Department of Insurance to see if it can share anything on their end, but haven’t heard back.