Banks Breaking into Occupied Homes, Stealing Items (Really)

[Hissyspit]

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/12/22/banks-breaking-into-occupied-homes-stealing-items-really

Banks Breaking into Occupied Homes, Stealing Items (Really)
By: David Dayen Wednesday December 22, 2010 7:27 am

Over the past few months, we’ve been following perhaps the worst abuse by the banks in the foreclosure crisis – breaking and entering homes where they are foreclosing, changing the locks, and terrorizing the owners. The banks claim that they only do this with vacant homes, in an effort to keep out squatters, but it hasn’t worked out that way. There have even been reports of break-ins on homes where the borrowers are current on their payments.

Borrowers who have seen their homes broken into are fighting back and even suing the banks over this practice. If signing false documents and lacking standing to foreclose is too technical for the courts, perhaps breaking and entering will be what stops the banks’ reign of terror.

When Mimi Ash arrived at her mountain chalet here for a weekend ski trip, she discovered that someone had broken into the home and changed the locks.

When she finally got into the house, it was empty. All of her possessions were gone: furniture, her son’s ski medals, winter clothes and family photos. Also missing was a wooden box, its top inscribed with the words “Together Forever,” that contained the ashes of her late husband, Robert.

The culprit, Ms. Ash soon learned, was not a burglar but her bank. According to a federal lawsuit filed in October by Ms. Ash, Bank of America had wrongfully foreclosed on her house and thrown out her belongings, without alerting Ms. Ash beforehand.

Ash was in the middle of working out a loan modification when this happened. “This is in essence a burglary,” Ash remarked. The bank took her late husband’s ashes.

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[LibraLiz1973]

1. WTF?!?!?!?! His ashes?!?!?!?!

That's all kinds of wrong

[aquart]

2. And this is where I find myself favoring the household shotgun.

This is an excellent opportunity for the NRA to inform homeowners of their rights in their own particular states.

It's all very well to file a lawsuit after the fact, but in terms of lawyers, we know the banks have bigger guns.

PS: I returned home today after a week away and have to leave again this evening without even sleeping in my own bed. I am feeling VERY home protective.

[Vincardog]

3. Bingo! This is a time for Second Amendment remedies if I ever saw one.

[aquart]

6. Ain't it just?

[SheilaT]

7. deleted, dupe

[SheilaT]

8. A household shotgun isn't any good

if you're not actually at home when the break-in occurs. As this woman wasn't.

[aquart]

11. Yeah. I know.

Of course, you could rig the thing to fire when the door was opened...but that is just so tricky.

[earth mom]

4. Despicable evil vile corrupt dirty rotten lowdown gangster banksters!

:grr:

[Obamanaut]

5. More discussion here ->

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x54184

[ProgressiveProfessor]

9. Low cost security systems are easily DIY

I've been helping friends install their own for years. Really pays off in times like these

[MyshkinCommaPrince]

10. Ugly.

All of the financial shenanigans which led to our current economic woes seem to have created some ambiguity about ownership and property rights, which is being predictably exploited. We really need to fix all of this. This ambiguity, left unchallenged, could end up serving as the philosophical or legal basis for some future wave of assaults by the wealthy and powerful against the rest of the population. I could imagine that, at any rate. Hope I'm just paranoid.