More on the bank who foreclosed on the wrong house.

[stephm0188]

WELLSTON, Ohio - A Jackson County bank is defending itself after a Consumer 10 report that it repossessed the wrong house.

Consumer10 reported on July 22 that the First National Bank of Wellston  wrongfully foreclosed upon a woman’s Vinton County home.

Homeowner Katie Barnett, who said that she had been away from her home for about two weeks, said that she has yet to receive a dime from the bank that mistakenly emptied all of her belongings from her house.

She said she was forced to climb through a window to get inside the home that she shares with her children.

“They came in and took all of my stuff,” Barnett said. “They locked me and mychildren out of the house. I think there should be more than just an apology.”
Consumer 10 asked the bank for an on-camera interview since reporting the story earlier in July.

Instead, the bank released a statement on its website, apologizing for what happened but disputing the amount of money it should repay.

In the bank’s statement, officials said they wanted to compensate Barnett fairly and equitably for inconvenience and loss.


But the bank has balked at paying the $18,000 Barnett is asking for.

“(They) demanded that I had receipts for all my stuff that they threw away,” Barnett said. “And I said, ‘Well, you know first of all, I don’t have receipts for all of my stuff. I wasn’t expected a bank to come and to accidently repossess my house and throw it all away. And second, if I did, where do you think it would be? In my house with all my belongings?’”

She said that everything from clothes to patio furniture to pool supplies was disposed of.

“Thisis the basketball hoop. They actually gave it to one of our neighbors, and the neighbors ended up giving it back to us. That is the only thing we’ve gotten back.

The bank has tried, though, Barnett said.

The homeowner said that one of the most expensive items she lost was a Bowflex home gym.

“Andthen they called me saying they found a Bowflex on the side of the roadif I wanted it.  I said no.  You know my Bowflex was a Bowflex Ultimate.  We paid, like, $2,300 for it; had all the attachments and thefeet pieces and stuff.  You know I said ‘no, I want it replaced.  I don’t’ want – you know – trash found on the side of the road,” Barnett said.

The bank insists that it acted in good faith.

The grass at the home was overgrown, the door was unlocked and the utilitieswere turned off. Officials said they simply discarded what was assumed to be trash and abandoned items.

“I have years and years of my belongings of me and my kids’ memories just thrown away because somebodyassumed, and I’m very angry about it,” Barnett said.

Barnett said that she has tried to resolve the issue herself for a few weeks before contacting Consumer 10. She has now retained an attorney.

www.10tv.com/content/stories/2013/07/26/wellston-bank-issues-statement-about-home-it-wrongfully-foreclosed-upon-balks-at-paying-up.html

And the bank's official statement...
www.10tv.com/content/downloads/2013/07/Statement_From_First_National_Bank_of_Wellston.pdf

[Deleted]

thank goodness she's retained an attorney

[Miss Phryne Fisher]

This bank deserves to have their asses sued within an inch of their lives. They are being RIDICULOUS.

[meshaliuknits]

This is bullshit. BULLSHIT.

Sent from my EVO

[orangeblossom]

Does this bank want to stay in business? Do they really think this is good for retaining and attaining customers?

First of all, how can she provide you with receipts if they threw everything out of the house, including, you know, receipts.

Second of all, 18K is on the low end and that they balk at that is astounding and to hear that they offered her something off the street is beyond crazy.

I hope she takes them to the cleaners.

[orangeblossom]

Do people not know how to read? Who cares what house the GPS sent you to. There was an address on the order sheet, correct? I mean what in the world. Blaming the issue on the GPS is carzy.

[stephm0188]

It's GPS' fault! It's the repo guys fault! It's her fault for going away for two weeks and not mowing! NOT OUR FAULT!

[UMaineTeach]

Bank should have taken the 18k deal. I hope the lawyer sues the pants off them

[evilempire]

I'm a big fat lurker, but this is local to me. The bank is located in Wellston, which is in Jackson County. The house is in McArthur which is in neighboring Vinton County. Both counties are, shall we say, economically depressed. I seriously side eye the idea that this woman had a $2300 Bowflex, but who knows. The bank issued this statement.

ig.libertyonline.net/ImageGallery/Custom/cu1176/PDFs/Announcement.pdf

A message from Tony Thorne regarding current news stories about our bank
July 25, 2013
The First National Bank of Wellston is a 127-year-old locally owned independent bank serving Jackson and Vinton Counties in Ohio. With two banking offices and 36 employees, our mission is to serve the banking needs of the people and businesses in our local communities.
On June 18, 2013, two representatives of the First National Bank of Wellston were assigned to clean and refurbish a bank-owned residential property. Regrettably, the GPS locator they used to find the property led them to the wrong home, which was located on the same street as the target property (we have since retraced their route using the same GPS, and it again took us to the same wrong location). As we discovered later, the property to which they were directed actually belonged to another individual.
When our representatives arrived, they noted that the grass was overgrown, the door was unlocked, and the utilities had been turned off. The home was also nearly empty, with two dressers being the only furniture inside the premises, and a neighbor indicated that the home had been vacant for some time. Therefore, not knowing that the GPS was incorrect, our employees had no reason to doubt that they were at the right location, and they proceeded to change the door locks, clean the property, and discard what they assumed to be trash and abandoned items. Unfortunately, we did not discover our error until the clean-up process was nearly complete.
This situation was a mistake on the part of our bank and – as we have done previously – we sincerely apologize to the homeowner for the inconvenience and concern it may have caused.
In addition, we communicated to the homeowner our desire to compensate her fairly and equitably for her inconvenience and loss. However, the written list of items that she provided to us – and the value she assigned to those items – is inconsistent with the list and descriptions of items removed that was prepared by the employees who did the work, and with the list and values of missing items provided by the homeowner herself as recorded in an earlier telephone conversation with one of our representatives.
In a meeting with me in my office, I indicated to the homeowner that we wanted to compensate her but would have to look further into the differences in the lists. We heard nothing more from her or otherwise about this situation until being contacted by a local television station, which subsequently broadcast a story that, from our perspective, did not accurately reflect the facts or the good faith actions of the First National Bank to resolve the situation.
Nearly all of the news stories that you may have seen – regardless of whether on television or the internet – appear to have been taken directly from the local television report. Other than CNN, no news media that has rebroadcast or reprinted this story has contacted us to get our side of the story or to verify the claims made on the local station.
Nothing like this has ever happened to our bank before, and we have instituted additional internal controls to ensure that it will not happen again.
Anthony S. Thorne President & CEO

It warms my heart to know that they've never erroneously repossessed a house before. My faith has been restored! I'm not surprised that the GPS directed the repossessers to the wrong house-- this is a REALLY rural area. Think gravel roads and lots of Confederate flags decorating decrepit barns and single wide trailers.

[statlerwaldorf]

evilempire my family is from that area. I just can't get over blaming it on the GPS. Everyone out there knows the reception is terrible and GPS can be unreliable. I ran into that problem when I was trying to use my GPS to get to Tar Hollow. It had me running in circles, but luckily I knew the area enough to get there.

I would like to think that out of anywhere they'd have a better plan in place to make sure that they had the right house.

[josieposy]

Simply from a PR perspective, the bank should be kissing this woman's ass. There is no reason not to.

[summer]

Unless the bank has photos and proof of what that house contained before, they should have given her her $18k.

[Chelle]

How do your repo the wrong fucking house? What morons!

And to the homeowner I say, "Get 'em girl"! I hope she gets $100K out of them at least. Idiots.

[summer]

That's the thing. If they weren't sure, thry shouldn't have done anything. Or at the very least kept the belongings in a truck, just in case.

And more generally, it's extremely effed up to start giving people's stuff away. It's bad enough it's on the street - don't go giving it to neighbors. It sucks enough just to be evicted.

[Deleted]

I don't care if that woman is manufacturing all of it . . . They should pay her her $18K and be happy that number doesn't have a 0 at the end. Why is the bank not grasping she isn't making an insurance claim, they actually ripped off her stuff? I would report them for burglary.

[Miss Phryne Fisher]

It seriously doesn't matter if she is lying about the Bowflex. I am poor as shit and have $18k of stuff in two bedrooms in my rental, let alone what is in the living room/kitchen/basement. Didn't the lady in Hot Coffee only ask for medical expenses to start? How much did she end up with in the end? Yea, I hope the same thing happens here. She was incredibly reasonable, to the point of probably not even coming close to real value.

[Deleted]

Jul 27, 2013 6:36:00 GMT -5 Miss Phryne Fisher said:

It seriously doesn't matter if she is lying about the Bowflex. I am poor as shit and have $18k of stuff in two bedrooms in my rental, let alone what is in the living room/kitchen/basement. Didn't the lady in Hot Coffee only ask for medical expenses to start? How much did she end up with in the end? Yea, I hope the same thing happens here. She was incredibly reasonable, to the point of probably not even coming close to real value.

That's where I'm at.

Even if you don't consider yourself a clothes horse, you probably have accumulated $500 in pants alone (if they are cheap pants). My cousin had her house broken into years ago. They stole 200 CDs. She didn't drop $3k on CDs overnight but over several years her collection added up.

[Deleted]

It sounds like the bank is claiming it was basically vacant and she didn't really live there.

Still would have been smart to pay up.

[pescalita]

Dear bank: you entered someone's property improperly and illegally and destroyed their property improperly and illegally. This does not give you the upper hand in the he said/she said of what was there to replace. It's not a good move to tell the person you robbed that they're lying.

[racegrrl714]

lawyer types: Are there any criminal charges that could be pressed on the bank/repo company? Just curious. Because if there are, I would be throwing some of these morons in jail.

[emisi]

Jul 27, 2013 6:48:04 GMT -5 @irishbride said:

It sounds like the bank is claiming it was basically vacant and she didn't really live there.

Still would have been smart to pay up.

I don't tend to believe their statement.  First they said there were only two dressers in the property and that was the only furniture in the house, and then they said that their employees had to discard "trash" and "abandoned items."  If there were only two dressers in the house, the cleanup shouldn't have taken very long.  They're trying to cover their ass.

[Deleted]

Jul 27, 2013 10:00:34 GMT -5 emisi said:

Jul 27, 2013 6:48:04 GMT -5 @irishbride said:

It sounds like the bank is claiming it was basically vacant and she didn't really live there.

Still would have been smart to pay up.

I don't tend to believe their statement.  First they said there were only two dressers in the property and that was the only furniture in the house, and then they said that their employees had to discard "trash" and "abandoned items."  If there were only two dressers in the house, the cleanup shouldn't have taken very long.  They're trying to cover their ass.

I don't know which side to believe, nor do I care. They should pay either way.

[starlily]

Jul 27, 2013 9:13:34 GMT -5 racegrrl714 said:

lawyer types: Are there any criminal charges that could be pressed on the bank/repo company? Just curious. Because if there are, I would be throwing some of these morons in jail.

Trespass, grand theft, possibly burglary, maybe vandalism.

I think "GPS reliance" would make a really poor defense in front of a jury, considering these nitwits should have checked the address.

[statlerwaldorf]

She did contact the police and they closed the case without pressing charges.

www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2013/07/24/an-ohio-bank-accidentally-foreclosed-the-wrong-house-and-repossessed-all-of-the-owners-stuff

[StrawberryBlondie]

Um... shouldn't the bank's lawyers be telling them to STFU?

[orangeblossom]

Jul 27, 2013 11:04:17 GMT -5 starlily said:

Jul 27, 2013 9:13:34 GMT -5 racegrrl714 said:

lawyer types: Are there any criminal charges that could be pressed on the bank/repo company? Just curious. Because if there are, I would be throwing some of these morons in jail.

Trespass, grand theft, possibly burglary, maybe vandalism.

I think "GPS reliance" would make a really poor defense in front of a jury, considering these nitwits should have checked the address.

Exactly.  People should look at the address before taking anything, and that they thought that was a plausible excuse is mind boggling.

[Deleted]

It's interesting to me it is a little local bank. I think a national bank would have a better PR department (and it would be easier for them to pay out $18K and not feel it). In any event, if my locl police did nothing I would report it federally and bring a civil action. There's no way this ends well for the bank.

[MrsAxilla]

Wouldn't her homeowners insurance cover this, assuming she had any? This is technically a theft.

[UMaineTeach]

Jul 27, 2013 11:25:09 GMT -5 orangeblossom said:

Jul 27, 2013 11:04:17 GMT -5 starlily said:

Trespass, grand theft, possibly burglary, maybe vandalism.

I think "GPS reliance" would make a really poor defense in front of a jury, considering these nitwits should have checked the address.

Exactly.  People should look at the address before taking anything, and that they thought that was a plausible excuse is mind boggling.

look at the address - or even - even go so far as to look it up on a damn county property map. You don't do legal things relying on a GPS. You look at lot maps and surveys. You go to the right damn house. You hire people who can read a map and translate it to actual land.

There is even a disclaimer on the GPS that says, don't blame us if you eff up.