Legal theft: Bank of America seized wrong house in foreclosure gone terribly wrong

[ck4829]

Can you imagine if you came home one day, the doors padlocked, your belongings ransacked, and your pet missing for no reason?

What's that? The bank did it? It's not theft, just a slight mistake made by your new corporate masters.

"Angela Iannelli returned home one day in October to find her house ransacked, doors padlocked and pet parrot Luke gone.

"I cannot walk into my house by myself. … I tried it one time by myself, went over, walked in, but the whole time I was jumping like somebody was behind me and I just started shaking," Iannelli of Gibsonia, Pa., said.

But it wasn't a burglar. It was Bank of America. The bank had repossessed her home even though the mortgage was up to date.

Her fate, an accidental foreclosure, or wrongful lockout, is becoming more common with major banks as foreclosure rates rise, experts say.

Iannelli, 46, is suing the bank, noting in court papers the serious destruction done to her house, including "cutting various water lines and electric wiring, damaging plaintiff's furnishings and carpets."

"If you or I had done to Bank of America, what Bank of America did to my client we'd be in prison for 10 years," Michael Rosenzweig, Iannelli's lawyer, said."

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/bank-america-apologized-accidentally-repossessing-home-taking-pet/story?id=10071658

[Cronus Protagonist]

1. The bank's agent should go to jail for burglary

Simple.

[Bozita]

5. All banksters have unlimited numbers of "Get Out of Jail FREE" cards

Banksters do God's work, you know.

[LakeSamish706]

2. Is there a recourse for this lady? Can she sue and what are her chances of wining?

That is just awful and I can't imagine what I would do under these circumstances.

[Winterblues]

3. Most anyone can sue for most anything

I know the Plame family was not allowed to sue but most everyone else certainly can. It would then be up to a jury to decide if damages should be awarded..Don't know about any criminal charges though since it was an "honest" mistake supposedly..

[roguevalley]

17. I hope she rips their lungs out. where the hell is her parrot?

[Kat45]

24. They confiscated the parrot, but she finally got him back.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8561707.stm

[roguevalley]

25. thank you for that news. Phew!

[DebbieCDC]

4. I hope she takes them to the cleaners

BoA is the scum of the earth

[Echo In Light]

13. +1000

[laughingliberal]

6. This, with the other 2 mentioned in the article makes 5 I have read of

At least in the first one this article deals with they, actually, had a mortgage with BofA. The others I have read about were people who had never owed BofA anything. And they have done some serious damage to some of the homes. In one they turned off the electricity and allowed pounds of fish in the freezer to go bad. The water and fish blood leaked out destroying the floor and the smell of rotten fish permeates the home. BofA, in that one, claimed their liability was limited to paying to have the locks changed.

[PVnRT]

7. Well, if they apologized, I guess everything's OK

I wonder where the DU bank apologists are - I want to hear them blame the victim on this one, too.

[Hello_Kitty]

20. She should have done her homework, ya know.

She should have researched beforehand whether or not the bank was mistakenly putting her house up for trustee sale. I mean, duh!

:sarcasm:

[LakeSamish706]

8. It's to bad the owner of the house hadn't been home holding a shotgun with salt in it...

and given the person that broke in a healthy shot in the ass with it.

[NutmegYankee]

22. Why salt? Castle Doctrine...

[joeybee12]

9. BofA did this to a couple in Florida...sounds like a pattern...

...that's what you do when you think you're above the law.

[louis-t]

10. I'm not a bank apologist, but...

the banks use contractors to empty houses when they foreclose. Ultimately, the bank is responsible for what the contractors do. The mistake could have been anywhere in the process, from a computer, to the asset manager, to the contractors themselves. BoA should own up and make things right. You can only keep pissing people off for so long before you destroy your business. BoA has a horrible rep already. Don't even think about a shrt sale with them. I mean 'short sale'.

[laughingliberal]

11. They have been caught at this several times that I know of. At least in this one they apologized

and are claiming they will restore damages. An article in a previous case where much damage was done and the couple was suing them quoted them as believing their liability was limited to paying to have the locks changed and that they believed the suit would be found to be without merit.

[Gin]

12. has anyone they have done this to.. sued them? if so, did they recoup

their losses?

[laughingliberal]

16. All of them I have read of have filed suit. I have not heard if any have made it to court yet.

[louis-t]

18. Don't you just want to scream?

[laughingliberal]

19. Yep nt

[tallahasseedem]

14. The thing that really gets me...

is that these "contractors" felt the need to ransack the home. Why in the world were various water lines and electrical wiring cut? These contractors are asses and the bank should be accountable not only for them, but the paperwork mix-up as well.

[gratuitous]

15. It's ACORN's fault!

And, and, and, all those poor people who bullied the Bank of America and other lenders into giving them loans that they couldn't repay. And now everyone's down on the beleaguered Bank of America, like they're the bad guys or something. Doesn't anyone remember that terrific movie, "It's a Wonderful Life"? A real slice of Americana. And who was one of the main characters? Mr. Potter, the banker. Who was in a wheelchair. Why are all you libruls coming down on guys in wheelchairs? You make me sick! You know who else had to use a wheelchair? Dick Cheney. And you know who wanted to rid society of the handicapped? Hitler.

Just pre-writing Glenn Beck's next show so that we'll all forget about former Rep. Massa.

[troubledamerican]

27. See how litigious liberals are? Always suing?

If Bank of America had been less regulated and given bigger tax cuts, this wouldn't have happened. Maybe next time REAL Americans will be fed-up enough with these litigious liberals and start bombing San Francisco until the liberals stop controlling the media and stop killing innocent REAL Christian Americans with their tax-and-spend anti-religious bank regulation.

[momof5sons]

28. Christians v liberals???

I am disappointed to say the least that the term "REAL Christian Americans" profoundly implies that the only real Americans are Christians. Hmmm...like founding father Thomas Jefferson, avowed agnostic? How about Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer - patriots that despite their reluctance devised the atomic bomb? Are these men and untold more any less patriotic than you simply because of their religious practice? My understanding is that the Puritans, Quakers, Mennonites, Moravians and Methodists are among the religions that flourished in the colonies because thier members chose to leave religious oppression in their homelands. Their ability to live in tolerance of the faith and practices of one another allowed this nation to come to existence. Would you have us live in a single religion country? Sounds unconstitutional to me.
Regarding the right to sue for remuneration if someone is wronged...would you let a bank seize your property erroneously or unjustly sans recourse? If so, please send me your address so that I can forward it to BoA. I'm sure that they would be interested in free property.
Do you sincerely believe that tax cuts to the inept criminals that run BoA would have prevented the illegal siezure in this story??? In what part of their incorporation documents does BoA require of suggest that all officers be "Christians?" In what asylum do you now reside?
By stating that "REAL Christian Americans" are being killed by a liberal media is just shocking. I haven't even heard that from Fox news, so I guess that you have a scoop on that... wow, run with it!
Finally, as a disclaimer, I am a real American (Sunday school teaching) Christian, one who follows the Commandments of the New Covenant...including the axiom to love my neighbor as myself.

[troubledamerican]

29. Please re-read my post

It's facetious. It's loaded with every right-wing cliché I could think of.

It's a reply to the post above it which also has the same tone.

[Jkid]

21. Worst, there's nothing you can do about it at all.

It could happen to anyone.

[City Lights]

23. Corporations are people, so Mr. or Ms. Bank of America will surely be held accountable.

Right?

[Grand Taurean]

26. The TARP bailout was a MASSIVE MISTAKE!

The big banks are drowning with toxic assets. All that TARP did was give them a little more undeserved time.