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http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local/foreclosure-crew-empties-wrong-building/nWmgp/
No answers after foreclosure crew empties wrong building
COUPLAND —
The workers who were supposed to clear out his neighbor’s foreclosed house instead cleaned out Mike Moors’ barn, making off with his wife’s wedding dress, their love letters, his boat, his backhoe, the works.
Moors wants to know where his stuff is and when he’ll get it back. The answer might be never.
“Are my things in storage somewhere?” asked Moors, 53, an unemployed construction worker who has been asking the same questions for more than a month. “Have they sold it at auction? How do I explain to my wife that she may never get her wedding dress back? There were many other heirlooms taken that are priceless.”
Safeguard Properties, the Ohio company that hired the crew to prepare the house next door for foreclosure in December, acknowledges the error and says an insurance company is verifying Moors’ claim and will soon have information for him. But not yet.
Moors cannot imagine how the mistake was made in the first place. A fence separates his property on County Road 460 from his former neighbor’s land. And there isn’t a home on Moors’ land, just a barn.
Moors, who lives in Taylor, discovered his belongings were missing in late January when he drove by the property, which he hopes will be the site of his retirement home. At first he thought he had been ripped off. He didn’t see his 16-foot fiberglass boat. A closer look revealed that the metal barn was broken into. The bolts on a metal rail fence securing the barn were cut off, and the fence was removed. Missing were his $15,000 Case 580 backhoe, a small printing press for sign-making and two locked construction trailers on wheels that were parked on either side of the barn.
A neighbor, Joe Diaz, saw it all. Three men in trucks and carrying clipboards showed up and began hauling things off. “They were here all day and part of the night. They couldn’t get the backhoe out so they dragged it out and put it on a trailer,” Diaz said.
Diaz said he was suspicious but not enough to call police: “I hadn’t seen Mr. Moors in a couple of months so I assumed the worst and thought he’d died or something. This was happening in broad daylight; I thought it was legit.”
This type of thing has been known to happen. In 2008, a Cedar Park couple who just bought a previously foreclosed house came home to find all their belongings missing. Field Asset Services workers hadn’t heard of the sale and believed the house was still in foreclosure. The company apologized; the couple sued.
Records from the national Better Business Bureau show that Safeguard Properties, which has a “C” rating and 33 complaints against it, was alleged to have made virtually the same mistake in 2011. The records don’t indicate where it occurred, but they say Safeguard failed to respond to the BBB’s attempt to resolve it. The Texas Attorney General’s Office confirmed late Friday that two complaints have been filed against the company in the past.
No answers after foreclosure crew empties wrong building
COUPLAND —
The workers who were supposed to clear out his neighbor’s foreclosed house instead cleaned out Mike Moors’ barn, making off with his wife’s wedding dress, their love letters, his boat, his backhoe, the works.
Moors wants to know where his stuff is and when he’ll get it back. The answer might be never.
“Are my things in storage somewhere?” asked Moors, 53, an unemployed construction worker who has been asking the same questions for more than a month. “Have they sold it at auction? How do I explain to my wife that she may never get her wedding dress back? There were many other heirlooms taken that are priceless.”
Safeguard Properties, the Ohio company that hired the crew to prepare the house next door for foreclosure in December, acknowledges the error and says an insurance company is verifying Moors’ claim and will soon have information for him. But not yet.
Moors cannot imagine how the mistake was made in the first place. A fence separates his property on County Road 460 from his former neighbor’s land. And there isn’t a home on Moors’ land, just a barn.
Moors, who lives in Taylor, discovered his belongings were missing in late January when he drove by the property, which he hopes will be the site of his retirement home. At first he thought he had been ripped off. He didn’t see his 16-foot fiberglass boat. A closer look revealed that the metal barn was broken into. The bolts on a metal rail fence securing the barn were cut off, and the fence was removed. Missing were his $15,000 Case 580 backhoe, a small printing press for sign-making and two locked construction trailers on wheels that were parked on either side of the barn.
A neighbor, Joe Diaz, saw it all. Three men in trucks and carrying clipboards showed up and began hauling things off. “They were here all day and part of the night. They couldn’t get the backhoe out so they dragged it out and put it on a trailer,” Diaz said.
Diaz said he was suspicious but not enough to call police: “I hadn’t seen Mr. Moors in a couple of months so I assumed the worst and thought he’d died or something. This was happening in broad daylight; I thought it was legit.”
This type of thing has been known to happen. In 2008, a Cedar Park couple who just bought a previously foreclosed house came home to find all their belongings missing. Field Asset Services workers hadn’t heard of the sale and believed the house was still in foreclosure. The company apologized; the couple sued.
Records from the national Better Business Bureau show that Safeguard Properties, which has a “C” rating and 33 complaints against it, was alleged to have made virtually the same mistake in 2011. The records don’t indicate where it occurred, but they say Safeguard failed to respond to the BBB’s attempt to resolve it. The Texas Attorney General’s Office confirmed late Friday that two complaints have been filed against the company in the past.
