Huffington Post: Junk Removers Find Heartbreaking Wreckage in Foreclosed Homes

[Louisiana1976]

Junk removal services in North Carolina have the sad job of cleaning out foreclosed homes and going through the former residents' lives, reports Robert Lopez of the Greensboro News & Record. The objects left behind, like a series of heart-breaking paleontological clues, provide a reminder that foreclosed houses used to be peoples' homes.

Turner, who oversees 1-800-GOT-JUNK? affiliates in the area, says he remembers going into one house and seeing the children's report cards still stuck to the refrigerator.

"They evidently had a young female, who I think was in elementary school," he says. "It was straight A's and B's, and it was still prominently displayed there with a magnet. And you think, 'Wow, they didn't even have time to grab this,' or maybe it was just an oversight. But that was a good student who lived in that house."

<snip>

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/23/junk-removers-find-heart_n_296502.html

[mzteris]

1. why couldn't these people

get their stuff out?

Do the foreclosure companies not even give you time to move out? or what?

[madeline_con]

3. Hey, Teri!

Maybe the heartless freeks lock the house while all are away at work and school. :shrug:

[mzteris]

17. Heya!

How're things?

:hi:

[unpossibles]

4. not sure

some may cut way back on possessions if they are moving into a small apartment or something.

[XemaSab]

5. Moving your stuff takes money

You looked up rental fees for U-Hauls lately?

[xchrom]

6. why can't the 'poor fuckin losrs ever get anything right'?!

kinda like the poor losers at AIG -- they didn't have to leave ANYTHING behind on their fridge doors.

[mzteris]

16. um -

was that directed at me?

I was asking 'cause I really need to know about this at this point, ya know?

[flvegan]

12. Depends on the state. Also, could have been renters with little notice.

In judicial states, sure, you may have 6 months to 2 years before you actually have to vacate after the Lis Pendens is filed (depending on how your case goes). In non-judicial states, you can be forced out in what...30-60 days?

Also, if these folks were tenants and not properly served, it could literally be 24 hours IIRC. In some cases, it is a shameful process.

[mzteris]

18. thanks.

WI is a judicial state. Whew.

[Triana]

2. Lives destroyed by the fraudulent mortgage industry & Wall Street

Yet WHO got the bailout?

Huh.

[Wapsie B]

7. Exactly. If we'd have paid all the mortgages off the banks would still get the $$

just not directly. Instead we bailout a bunch of crooks. A pox on all their houses I say.

[gmoney]

14. We can't reward and encourage irresponsible behavior...

if you're a homeowner, that is. If you're a big bank, go for it.

[Johonny]

19. well not to be mean but

responsible people had money in those banks too. Many people saw the collapse of the housing market and chose not to invest in housing. So I can see why logically society would bail out the banks and not individual home owners. No one understands why the bailouts came no strings attached and without any new regulations. No one understands why the government didn't force banks to rework loans. In many areas the situation is about to get worse in 2010 even though there is no logically reason for it.

Oh course one could argue that putting money in a bank account is an investment and a risk just like home ownership...

[Feron]

8. It's all about personal responsiblity.

If you aren't too big too fail, then no bailout for you. Makes sense, doesn't it?!:sarcasm:

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. Don't miss Michael Moore's new movie

I saw it last weekend. You just pegged it.

[Triana]

15. It's on my calendar!! Ain't NO WAY I'm missing that! n/t

[angrycarpenter]

9. When I was a kid we moved around like gypsies.

Mom and Dad always looking for a better life in another town. In one house or another my entire childhood was left because we had to move in a car with just our clothes. I remember that I once had a pretty good fossil collection, I had a stack of fossil nautiloids that almost makes me weep these days because I had to leave them behind. In the end it is all just stuff that can be replaced maybe one day. What is much worse than that are the families that break up. Kids that have to live with grandma or couples torn apart by money worries. At least my parents managed to stick it out but for thousands the wreckage is a lot more than just lost stuff.

[grasswire]

11. well, you need a...

...:hug:

I'm sorry. Your story touched me. Damn bastids that have ruined so many lives via greed. I'm sorry.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

13. I was in a foreclosed home a few weeks ago,

I was helping with a documentary on the economic crisis for French television.

The former occupants, which appear to have been a young couple didn't take much of anything except for their electronics and clothing. They also left behind a sizable box of sex toys, a dismantled ATV and some Ikea crap still in unopened boxes.