An eighty-two year old Tampa Bay man has lost everything he owns, including pictures of his dead wife, after a clean-out crew hired by Bank of America mistook his house for the foreclosure next door.
The St. Petersburg Times reports that Benito Sr. came back from vacation to find that his house was padlocked and everything inside was gone. A sign outside taped to his window was for a company that cleans out foreclosed houses.
When he first called the number, an employee said it was probably their fault, saying, “It had to be us. We had a work order to go out to 4255.”
The mistake may have arose from Santiago’s mailbox and confusing history surrounding his his address. It says 4205 on one side but on the other the “0″ is missing. The land next door referred to as 4255 W. Humphrey St. doesn’t exist in the property records and both packages and services have been delivered to his house in the past intended for his neighbor.
Benito Sr. is now suing the trash-out company and the loan servicer for damages.
According to a lawyer specializing in lockout cases like this, even if he wins, the man will never see his possessions again.
“We have never gotten one piece of property back,” the lawyer told the St. Petersburg Times.
Tampa retiree says he lost belongings in foreclosure blunder [St. Petersburg Times] (Thanks to overit!)
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So you are awesome and this poor old man who just had everything i his home stolen, not burned, is not.
Excellent point. Not everyone can afford a $500 dollar safe. My $60 safe would have walked away with the rest of his possessions.
These type of Break-ins & Grand Thefts would stop if.
1. Someone went Dirty Harry on the Home Invaders & they got what every criminal caught deserves.
2. The Banks were held to a very high damage reward that made them think twice before foreclosing illegally.
3. All Bank employees who are involved go to prison for being Accomplices to the Theft.
This isn’t a mistake since it happens way to often. What it is is THEFT period.
This has been happening far too often lately. We need stronger penalties for accidentally stealing and destroying everything someone owns.
Those clean out crews are supposed to throw everything away. Legally they can’t keep or recycle anything. That said, ask a clean out crew if jewelry or booze ever made its way to their home.
I have a friend who is an actor and his day job is doing these kinds of clean outs. He worries about the people and such. He’s a good guy. He would feel awful if he accidentally did this to someone. But I think he checks pretty carefully.
There are things that suck more, however, this rates high on the list. There should be pictures, maps and double checks up the wazoo before entering a home for the purpose of foreclosure. Further, whether it is required or not a legally appointed representative for the homeowner and/or the homeowner/s themselves should be present. Bank of America lost my respect as a consumer a long time ago, this just reconfirms that they really are not a business that I will ever do business with again. The mailbox missing a number is no big deal. Professionals know that house numbers can change. Ours did in a former neighborhood. We were assigned our next door neighbors address and they were assigned a new one. Was anyone thinking that maybe they should double check their ‘FACTS’ as I assume the key didn’t fit. I have access to public info about our current neighborhood even if I had never met a single neighbor. When you put THE NAME of the homeowner together with a neighborhood MAP, the mailbox becomes a non-issue. I am furious over the way Benito Sr. has been mistreated through sheer negligence. It is times like these when I would not mind being a lawyer to represent Benito Sr. I would latch on to every party involved like a vicious bulldog and they WOULD PAY for what they did to that poor man. May God bless you Benito Sr. and may your memories serve you well.
Give him the clean-up company’s assets.
That poor man. THIS is what people should be using law suits for. I hope he wins and wins big.
In cases such as these, which are becoming distressingly more common, the foreclosing entity should be responsible for treble damages. No amount of money can replace family memories, or treasured items but high damage awards will make the banks look long and hard at their paperwork to make sure no errors are about to be made.
Ideally, this regulation would be done at the Federal level to make sure there are no “bare spots” where banks can run roughshod over [people with impunity. banks will of course fight this tooth and nail, and probably use the tired and oft-used phrase “job killing” to describe this proposal…wait and see if I am right.