When police arrived at 3 p.m. the group barricaded the two steel doors leading in to the St. Patrick Market building basement. After a brief negotiation with police officers and the city real estate manager, the group of four protesters came out peacefully, said Const. Wendy Drummond. No arrests were made or charges laid.

The protesters were tipped off when a member of the group left, and saw several police cruisers and officers outside, said Antonin Smith, one of the 20-odd members of the “Squat Squad” of Occupy Toronto protesters who moved into the new location.

Police arrived about an hour after the protesters sent out a press release demanding a 36-month lease at 99 cents a year.

A notice of trespassing from the City of Toronto, stating the protesters are prohibited from entering the basement, was slipped under the door, said Smith.

“We started to suspect they would cut through the wall, so before the City of Toronto was going to damage its own property we decided to call it a day,” said Smith.

They gathered their personal belongings and headed outside. The city offered to gather the rest of their stuff — including air mattresses and hot plates — and move it to a safe location where they can pick it up.

The protesters had been squatting in the St. Patrick Market building for about three days, said Smith. Earlier Monday, Smith told the Star the group of twenty-three would not leave until they could legitimately occupy the space.

“The first thing we would like to do is clean the place up,” Smith said in an earlier phone interview from the basement. He said the group had hoped to make the 4,500 square feet usable for serving food, much the way he and other occupiers did at St. James Park up until last week.

Smith said the group had been in touch with a lawyer and members were working on speaking with Councillor Adam Vaughan about their requests.

The squatters’ upstairs neighbour, a shawarma and burger vendor, wasn’t aware of their presence before learning of it from a reporter. But others in the neighbourhood who heard about the occupation early Monday morning said they wanted the group to leave.

“Residents are simply asking the city to enforce the law and show them the door,” said Danna O’Brien, a resident and member of the condo board at a nearby building. “We know that wherever Occupy Toronto occupies, it’s not a happy ending.”

Watching as the basement entrance locks were changes, Smith and the small group of evicted protestors were handed a $20 for hot drinks by a supportive area resident and member of the Grange Community Association, Ceta Ramkhalawansingh.

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“It’s unfortunate our first choice turned out like this,” said Smith. But it’s not over.

“We’ll find another spot and squat there,” he said.