And so US banks now think they are above the law, breaking into people's homes and changing their locks.
The Sarasota Herald Tribune reports: "Two Canadian tourists returning to their rental home from a day at the beach found evidence burglars had struck — or so it seemed. Their laptop computer and MP3 player were missing, as were six bottles of wine. A half-empty beer opened by the intruders was still cold and sitting on the kitchen counter. But why, then, had the locks on the front door been changed? It turns out that a Sarasota company working for a lender trying to retake the property through foreclosure sent two men to the Punta Gorda home to break in and change the locks, even though the home was obviously occupied. It is illegal for any bank representative to enter a property if they have not yet retaken it at a foreclosure sale, especially if there is any sign the home is occupied, foreclosure experts say. The process of banks hiring people to break into homes, even when occupied, is just the latest oddity of the messy foreclosure crisis in Florida. Some property owners are reporting the break-ins to law enforcement as burglaries. Yet investigators consider the disputes a civil matter because the contractors do not display criminal intent. That essentially leaves the property owners without recourse. The attorney for the owner of the Punta Gorda home where the beer was left on the counter in March says the banks 'have become intoxicated with power' because there are no consequences to sending contractors out to break into homes that they do not own. 'It is vastly underreported; it is happening in counties all across the state,' said St. Petersburg foreclosure defense attorney Matt Weidner. 'The more this occurs, the more prevalent it's going to become.' "
It's bad enough that people are losing their homes across the United States, now the banks are breaking into them.
The Market Ticker blog says the banks are breaking the law. "We now have confirmed instances, including 911 calls, of banks hiring people to break into homes where the foreclosure has not yet taken place, and in some instances, they're breaking into the wrong house. That's illegal – until the bank has a court order giving them possession, they don't have possession and they have no right to be there."
You can watch a video of one woman who had her house broken into by bank thugs here.
Intoxicated with power is one way of putting it. How about "harassment". How about "trespass" or "damaging private property" (by changing the locks)?
If someone breaks into your house and you are in fear of your life….shoot ‘em. Once this happens a dozen or so times, it will stop. Simple, yet elegant