Retired Floridian Returns Home To Find His Home Foreclosed Upon, By Mistake

Here's a friendly reminder to everyone who has summer vacation plans: Before your departure date, it's a good idea to solicit the help of a trusted friend or neighbor to look after your domicile while you are away on holiday. It's a good way to ensure that pets get fed, plants get watered and mail doesn't pile up outside your house. Oh, and because it's 2011, it could also keep your home from being wrongly seized in a foreclosure and all of your worldly possessions from being taken away! Here's Eric P. Newcomer of the St. Petersburg Times:

After going out of town, an 82-year-old man returned home to find his house emptied out. Even the trash was gone.

He found a padlocked door and a sign for a company that cleans out properties in foreclosure.

But Benito Santiago Sr.'s home wasn't in foreclosure, public records show.

It seems that Bank Of America, an institution known for the mass-manufacture of foreclosure errors that also occasionally dabbles in a little personal banking, sent a foreclosure "clean-out crew" out to a condominium at 4255 W. Humphrey St. in Hillsborough County, Florida. They ended up cleaning out Santiago's home by mistake. Apparently, something about Santiago's mailbox royally confused them:

On one side, it displayed the number "4205." But on the other side, the "0" was missing.

The land formerly known as "4255 W Humphrey St." does not exist in Hillsborough County Property Appraiser records. Santiago's property is surrounded on three sides by Grand Reserve, a condominium complex that once used that address. Others have arrived in error to 4205.

You can see why an experienced clean-out crew would be flummoxed by this two-sided mailbox, right? (Actually, you can't, because remember, they were sent to a condominium.) Yes, "others have arrived in error to 4205," but you'd imagine that foreclosure proceedings would be carried out with a high-degree of professionalism. You'd be wrong, of course!

Charlie and Maria Cardoso are among the millions of Americans who have experienced the misery and embarrassment that come with home foreclosure.

Just one problem: The Massachusetts couple paid for their future retirement home in Spring Hill with cash in 2005, five years before agents for Bank of America seized the house, removed belongings and changed the locks on the doors, according to a lawsuit the couple have filed in federal court.

Early last month, Charlie Cardoso had to drive to Florida to get his home back, the complaint filed in Massachusetts on Jan. 20 states.

The bank had an incorrect address on foreclosure documents -- the house it meant to seize is across the street and about 10 doors down -- but the Cardosos and a realtor employed by Bank of America were unable to convince the company that it had the wrong house, the suit states.

That's from a February 12, 2010 piece, also in the St. Petersburg Times. Bank Of America was actually tipped off to their mistake before the property was seized, but the eviction proceeded anyway.

As with this most recent story, the Cardoso's possessions were removed. So, you might be wondering: what's the outlook on whether Santiago will get his wrongly seized possessions returned to him? A foreclosure lawyer gives the Times the bottom line: "We have never gotten one piece of property back." (Santiago's possessions are, after all, probably worth much more than many of the toxic assets the Bank is currently holding on its balance sheet, after all. The "antique wagon wheel" he once owned is probably triple-A rated and underpinning a credit derivative even as we speak.)

At any rate, it's wonderful to hear about the great care that major banks are taking with the lives of the people who saved them from extinction, with their bailout money.

[Hat Tip: The Consumerist]

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Comments

[MortgageCCO]

04:05 PM on 07/05/2011

Just more fraud the banks are involved in. This will never stop till American people stand up

[Tom Julian]

03:35 PM on 07/04/2011

Wait - how come the cops aren't treating this like a crime? It's a burglary.

[Romanyshyn]

03:26 PM on 07/02/2011

The best thing the government could do is eliminate the banking system as we know it, arrest the thugs for treason and put them in front of a firing squad.

[scificarolinaguy]

11:22 AM on 07/02/2011

The reverse happened to me many years ago. I bought a Ford Mustang, my first sporty car. I had been driving it for about a month when I got a call to come to the dealership. When I got there, they apologized to me because their records showed I paid my $1,000.00 down payment twice. I told them it must be a mistake, that I only paid them once. The woman told me point blank, "We don't make mistakes." So, I took that check to their bank, cashed it, then put it in my bank account. If they were insisting they don't make mistakes, then I insisted on keeping the money!

[robmclaughjr]

01:08 PM on 07/01/2011

How is that not burglary? Since when have banks had the right to steal private property without criminal consequences? Throw the individuals who committed the act in jail and this problem will end overnight.

[rkajfa]

05:17 PM on 06/30/2011

Since this is becoming a weekly occurance maybe the fines imposed by the courts is not stiff enough. Can you imagine putting a value on family heirlooms and memories and pictures impossable to replace. And do you think the Bank gives a damn.It seems the only thing they understand is money and if enough is taken away from them due to their greed and maliciousness , maybe they'll get the message . Now we have to find a supreme court judge that's not on the take!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[scificarolinaguy]

11:24 AM on 07/02/2011

Unfortunately, 5 Supreme Court justices are Republicans who have declared that corporations are people-- and therefore have as many rights as real Americans.

[Americans4Justice]

03:03 PM on 06/30/2011

Is it possible that those people that were illegally foreclosed upon by Bank of America and their minions, can find out where the board members of B of A live, and show up at their homes, with a legal signed court ordered document, and simply remove all their worldly possessions? It seems that Justice would then be served.

[ClassicalGas]

06:01 PM on 06/29/2011

I hope the courts give him the damn bank! All of it! And the same goes for Countrywide Home Loans!

They clean out his house and ~ignore~ him? Where's a guillotine when you need one?

[PilgrimMom]

04:54 PM on 06/29/2011

Mr. Santiago and his attorney were just on the Dylan Ratigan show on MSNBC. Still no word from Bank of America or their hired clean-out crew, Field Asset Services for their criminal actions.

"A Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy estimated in an Oct. 5, 2009, report that the Santiago's possessions were worth $29,100."

"In an interview, Santiago, a retired antiques dealer, guessed they were worth $100,000."

""At least," he said."

"Pictures of his deceased wife were among the items taken. He lost everything, including his furniture and an antique wagon wheel. The incident upset him enough that he moved in with a friend."

""Everything was taken out of the property," he said. "I feel nervous. I'm not going back.""

[Tom95134]

01:23 PM on 06/29/2011

Maybe Sharron Angle, the Tea Party candidate turned Republican primary winner in Nevada in the 2010 election was right when she talked about "Second Amendment remedies?"

[SPQR1775]

11:21 AM on 06/29/2011

In AMERICA the Banks have more POWER than the feds. We live in a FACIST nation, how is it that the BANKS can send people to empty your home with a court order. Oh, I know, they also OWN the courtseven the SUPREME COURT. Oh, did Reagan truly expect AMERICA to be like this or is this what the BUSHES intended all along, since Hitler the Bushes have been schemeing and planning for the creation of a FACIST America. PEOPLE have GOT TO WAKE up. The only savior we have is PRESIDENT OBAMA, the GOPT is on a march!

[SPQR1775]

11:18 AM on 06/29/2011

SUE BOA

[Keyop]

08:54 AM on 06/29/2011

time to start boobie trapping your homes with secret trap doors and devices to make entering a home a dangerous proposition.

[SD23]

05:22 PM on 07/08/2011

Would be great if we were ALLOWED to protect our property, but doing that will get us sued now days!

[dannywanny]

01:55 AM on 06/29/2011

There are too many federal regulations. We have to reduce those useless regulations on big business so that they can proceed with their activities without being constrained. When regulations are reduced, business can proceed and everybody will benefit.

Can you believe that there are still large numbers of people who still believe that?

[shadow013]

07:15 AM on 06/29/2011

Foreclosures occur under state laws, not federal. Too many states, counties and court circuits give a pass to big banksters. Perhaps that is through not being informed that so much fraud and careless record keeping is in the home loan system. State and local governments better step up and take care of their citizens. But they can be paid off, too.

[Beckel411]

06:49 PM on 06/29/2011

Doesn't matter whether it's federal laws or state laws. They're all confining and holding back economic growth. Ohio keeps saying that now so it must be true. West Virginia says it, too. And I believe West Virginia cuz if they didn't have all those safety rules for the mines, the mine owner wouldn't have had to lie about the safety records. We put him in a really tough position and forced him to lie. Poor guy.

[jdrabe]

01:47 AM on 06/29/2011

I hope he sues and gets stinking rich out of the deal.

[rkajfa]

05:22 PM on 06/30/2011

how about just a picture of his deceased wife???????