guest blog by Nila Ridings
From my previous Wichita, Kansas story you might recall folks there have some weird and wicked things happen to them.
Rozalin Taylor was away from home for a few hours, and stunned by what she saw when she returned. Half of her roof was gone, not because of wind, but because of a lost roofing crew. At first, Rozalin thought she was being surprised with a new roof compliments of members of her church.
Reality set in and she went searching for whoever had done the damage and left truck tracks in her lawn. The roofing company working right down the street claimed no knowledge of ever being on her roof. Finally, some helpful friends papered the bare roof to help protect her from an approaching storm.
Rozalin learned she wasn’t the first homeowner in the area missing part of their roof simply because a roofing company couldn’t read addresses!
Could somebody please buy these guys a GPS?
Reliance on GPS is (allegedly) what led to a bank foreclosure on a wrong house in Ohio.
When Katie Barnett returned from a two week vacation, she discovered that the locks on her doors had been changed, and her personal possessions were missing. It turns out that employees of First National Bank in Wellston (OH) — of which she is not a customer — were sent to foreclose on the house across the street. They blamed the error on GPS.
Ms. Barnett asked for only $18,000 to replace the items that the bank had taken and sold. The bank refused, claiming that the list of missing items submitted by Ms. Barnett did not match the list of items produced by their employees.
For bank executives, $18,000 is mere pocket change: a new suit, a night with a steak dinner and some really expensive wine and or champaigne, a prostitute or two, and some lines of blow with plenty of cash left over. For the rest of us, $18,000 is a lot of money.
To give you an idea of how d-baggish the bank executives are:
The police are not treating the break-in and theft of Ms. Barnett’s property as a crime, so her only recourse is to file a civil suit.
sources:
* “Want To Burglarize A House With Impunity, Then Nickle-And-Dime The Restitution? It Helps To Be A Bank.”
by Ken White. Jul 26, 2013
* “Ohio Family’s Home Mistaken for Foreclosed Property Across the Street”
by Susanna Kim. ABC. July 26, 2013
* “Bank Issues Statement About Home It Wrongfully Foreclosed Upon, Balks At Paying Up”
WBNS-TV. July 26, 2013
As Evan McKenzie wrote last year in response to another wrongful foreclosure:
As long as corporate officers are allowed to hide behind the corporate person, and not held personally liable, they will not change their behavior.
Sounds like even a GPS might not work. What about just a good city map?
Thanks RTO for your coverage of failed GPS guidance and the horrible consequences. I always knew there was some reason I didn’t want a GPS. Now, I know that even WITH one, I could still end up in the wrong place!