I recall a case a while back from Boulder, Colorado. Someone started using part of his neighbor’s back yard (it was a large piece of property) and the property-owner didn’t notice. The intruder then got a judge to rule that that part of the property was now his because the property-owner had not done anything to prevent his use of it. I think the judge was a friend of his.
Don’t know the details of the case, but the only way to do this would be adverse possession which would could happen, as I state it requires the squatter to act as the owner of the land openly usually for an extended period of time (decades in most cases) and if the rightful owner does nothing to protest it, and the squatter can prove they had indeed taken care of the property etc etc etc over that time they could be granted the property via adverse possession.
The main reason for these laws is to deal with truly abandoned properties, IE owner died with no heir or heir didn’t want and abandoned, or the owner just up and left and didn’t care about the property and truly abandoned it. The laws themselves are useful in cases where they truly apply but that is very very rare in the modern world.