Wells Fargo Forecloses On, Auctions Off House With Dead Owner Inside

[NYC Liberal]

(via http://consumerist.com/2011/07/wells-fargo-forecloses-on-auctions-off-house-with-dead-owner-inside.html">The Consumerist)

Last year, Wells Fargo foreclosed on and auctioned off a modest townhouse on Cape Canaveral in Florida. The owner hadn't made any mortgage payments or used any electricity in over a year, and neighbors didn't recall seeing her. Her possessions and car were still in the house. Did she walk away from her mortgage and leave town entirely? Not quite. The house's new owner found something Wells Fargo's inspectors and property managers had missed when they inventoried the contents of the house and garage: the homeowner's mummified remains in the front passenger seat of her car. Her cause of death remains unknown.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/a-brevard-woman-disappeared-but-never-left-home/1181888">Read the full story…it's incredibly sad but worth the read.

Last year, a week before Thanksgiving, a man in Cape Canaveral bought in a foreclosure auction a two-story stucco run-down townhouse on a short, straight street called Cherie Down Lane. He went to see his purchase he hoped to fix up and sell.

He found in the kitchen dishes stacked so high on the counter they almost touched the bottoms of the cabinets. In the living room on the carpet was a towel with two plates of mold-covered cat food. Empty orange pill bottles were everywhere. In front of the couch, open on a single TV tray, was a Brevard County Hometown News, dated July 24, 2009.

[Brickbat]

1. So very sad when people don't get the mental help they need.

[malaise]

2. Sad does not describe this

:cry:

[Systematic Chaos]

3. It's one helluva story, isn't it?

:(

[nuxvomica]

4. Read the full story

It's a really good piece of journalism about how people can just slip away.
:cry:

[woo me with science]

5. What a horrible, heartbreaking story.

And there is something metaphorical here about Wells Fargo, too.

[Ian David]

6. It could be worse. There could have been a moth.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/18c0442de7/moth-finds-a-home

[riverwalker]

7. so sad

and the obituary said "she will be missed".

[kenny blankenship]

8. It's a fixer upper. But first it's a dragger outer.

[Morning Dew]

9. That was well worth reading. Thanks.

[LiberalFighter]

10. It shows how Wells Fargo is incompetent.

And what the hell... all contents were included in the foreclosure auction? That can't be right. Did Wells Fargo sell property they had no right to sell?

[Jim Lane]

11. The inspectors missed the corpse, but it wasn't as obvious as it might have been.

She was in her car, but, according to the article, "Her head was on the floor and her feet were on the seat." I agree, they still should have found her, but who of us can be sure we wouldn't have made the same mistake?

The article doesn't discuss the contents. My guess is that, with the foreclosure, she was mailed a notice to be out by a specified date. It's no longer her house so she's not entitled to use it as a storage space. Anything she leaves behind when she departs would be abandoned property. They simply didn't realize that she hadn't departed.