In August my husband Jody and I filed chapter thirteen bankruptcy. Cause No. Xx. Six months later, after paying twelve-hundred dollars a month, we decided that the payment was too much in order to keep our house. I spoke with our Bankruptcy attorney, and we amended our bankruptcy to a chapter seven. This was finalized a few months later.
On May 1 we received a notice of trustee's sale from First American Title Insurance Company. The notice recited that the house was going to be auctioned on June 20 and that we had twenty days after the auction date until the subsequent purchaser had the right to bring an action to evict us from our house. To save everybody the hassle and especially us, we decided to move sooner. But we had not fully moved out of our house yet, because we knew we had time. We found an other house to rent that was very close to the house.instead of moving everything all at once and over loading our new place, we went daily to get some of our things and feed our animals. We had a lot of the stuff moved out but also still had many items at the house including most of our dishes, kitchen appliances, a gun cabinet, mail, (including about 6 months of pay stubs) clothes and some family heirlooms. Not to mention many other items still left in the house.
On July 7 the seventeenth day after the sale, my husband arrived at the house and found that the locks were changed. I called our bankruptcy attorney and asked her if we were mistaken on the documents. She said no, and that we needed to try and get all of our items out of the house. It was still our house. She also told us to call the mortgage company. Since the locks were changed we couldn't enter the premises. Our neighbor, Wes Anderson across the street told us that a man came to the house in our absence and changed the locks and that he was going to call the Sheriffs department to pick up our dog and cat. We were shocked. That night after work my husband got our dog and cat. The next morning I called GMAC Mortgage to try and find out what was going on. Every person I talked to kept passing the buck. Nobody would give me the correct person to talk to. I told our story many times to many different people. They thought I was lying. Some of them including First American Title Company could not believe what was going on. I told our story many times to many different people. GMAC's REO Dept. Said that our file was never in their records.
We were unable to arrive the following day. On June 9th, we returned to Ellinor Ave to find that our house was gutted out. The neighbors came over and told me that the people who were hired to clean out the house had sold them some of our stolen property and that the rest, that wasn't of value to them, was going to the garbage dump. The workers also told Mrs. Anderson that the mortgage company, "only gave them one day to clean the house out". Half of our household goods, and many of our family heirlooms were taken. We had even kept the power and water on in the residence because of how often we were still coming to the house. And despite numerous calls to get in touch with the mortgage company GMAC we received no response. Neither by mail, or by phone.
All of our kitchen items were taken.including my last six month's worth of pay stub, IRS docs. And other personal financial information which had been stored in my desk that was in the living room. Our 1 year old sons crib, Hospital pictures, rocking chair and some of his personal belongings and keepsakes. These things can never be returned, and there is no price we can put on them. Based on the advice from our bankruptcy attorney we called the Shelton police department to report the incident. They turned their heads ignoring the laws to help us even when we know trespass is a crime and not a civil matter. The people who where hired to clean the house sold our stolen property to the neighbors. I know that these persons sold my personal property to my neighbor because I bought it back from them a few days later. But if not for the kindness of my neighbors, a few of my keepsakes and my husband's gun cabinet would have gone to the dump like the rest of our things. It was embarrassing for us to have to re-purchase our property from our neighbors, and explain such a weird and horrible situation.
My husband and I thought that our lives would be so much better after the bankruptcy, but we were wrong. We were locked out of our house, trespassed against and then robbed. Knowing who was behind it, but couldn't do anything about it because they pretended nothing happened.
Please help us if you have a situation similar or the same as us. They can't get away with it. We would be in jail if we did this to somebody. Also if you are in Washington state and can help. PLEASE!
Thank you, Katrina in Shelton, WA
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