UPDATED: Our source, Rebecca Marie Knox, responds to our story this morning:
Please be aware,your reporter is a joke,,,he spams are accounts,acting as a friend???but is really a reporter???low lifes.....please keep my name out of your paper,your paper is a racist joke,,,bullies,,,privacy please...
ORIGINAL POST: Loki Boy isn't going anywhere.
The 23-year-old Brazilian, Andre Barbosa, who overtook a $2.5 million mansion by means of "adverse possession" -- an antiquated quirk in Florida property law -- at the end of last year, was served an eviction notice yesterday by Bank of America "without incident."
Dude's response? You're going to have to kill me.
"He is different," said friend Rebecca Marie Knox of Springfield who's spoken with the reclusive Barbosa every day by telephone. "He is very different. He is very quiet. This is something that he has against Bank of America. He has a big thing against Bank of America. He mentions them a lot. But he so quiet -- and most 23-year-olds aren't that quiet."
Knox, who met Barbosa on the Internet, said his obsession with Loki is rooted in Nordic mythology. Loki is the brother of Thor, the Thunder God.
By any estimation, Loki, who moved into the house after Bank of America foreclosed on it, has a peculiar online presence. He, or one of his friends, updates his Facebook page constantly. It's a profile teeming with images of Barbosa clad in strange outfits and deploying the word yeah to an incredible degree. Yesterday, after the eviction came down, he posted "Peace within is Peace without."
Since the Sun Sentinel broke the story last week, the news has gone viral, streaming to New York papers like the New York Post, and across the pond to the Daily Mail.
But his motives aren't yet known. He's declined interview requests from Boca to London.
And in a brief Facebook chat New Times had with Barbosa yesterday, he said he'd think about whether he wanted to speak, declining to answer whether his takeover of the Boca mansion was politically motivated.
Knox said she, too, isn't clear on what's driving the man. "I haven't asked him why he's doing this, and I don't care," Knox, 31, said. "There are houses sitting all over the United States empty and there's no reason why homeless people can't live in them."
So was Barbosa homeless?
"He definitely isn't homeless," she said. "He has too much family, too many sisters and brothers."
She said Barbosa's only problem right now are his cantankerous neighbors. "I just talked to him an hour ago and he has a neighbor who, every time Loki leaves, yells out at him. They don't know anything about him because he keeps to himself inside the house."
She said the house is completely furnished and Loki often sends her pictures of it, along with messages. But, she says, Barbosa isn't lonely. He's apparently having too much fun.
Though, he doesn't want anyone knowing much of this. After he discovered New Times had spoken with Knox, he wasn't happy with the intrusion.
Knox messaged us shortly after our talk: "Talked too loki ,he wants no contact as you have been blocked,i also wish no further contact,please respect are privacy,,,,,,thank you."
Then, though we hadn't responded nor inquired into Barbosa's nationality, Knox messaged us again 30 minutes later. "FYI LOKI IS 100% BRAZILIAN.........THATS ALL I WILL GIVE YOU...."
She then blocked New Times as well.
Follow the writer @terrence_mccoy.
Follow @NewTimesBroward
