Lawsuit: Bank Broke Into My Home and Took My Husband’s Cremated Ashes
- Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:22pm by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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The New York Times has an article today detailing what many lawsuits claim are “illegal” foreclosures and thuggish acts by banks. One example says Bank of America allegedly breaking into a woman’s home and took everything, including her dead husband’s ashes.
From the New York Times:
When Mimi Ash arrived at her mountain chalet here for a weekend ski trip, she discovered that someone had broken into the home and changed the locks.
When she finally got into the house, it was empty. All of her possessions were gone: furniture, her son’s ski medals, winter clothes and family photos. Also missing was a wooden box, its top inscribed with the words “Together Forever,” that contained the ashes of her late husband, Robert.
The culprit, Ms. Ash soon learned, was not a burglar but her bank. According to a federal lawsuit filed in October by Ms. Ash, Bank of America had wrongfully foreclosed on her house and thrown out her belongings, without alerting Ms. Ash beforehand.
(H/T: Business Insider)



















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Comments (135)
TPaine
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:09pmI have a mat at my front door that says “Come Back With a Warrant!” Mostly meant for the Gestapo, I’ll admit. I am current, and always have been, on my mortgage. If ANY bank shows up at my door trying this crap, they’ll be arriving shortly at the local emergency room, with multiple contusions and wounds, some of them possibly fatal.
Report Post »eraser310
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:29pmThey’re like any other private citizens. Just because they‘re a big company doesn’t give them the same powers of the government.
Report Post »ARIZONA VETERAN
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 9:16pmand carrying their nutsack with balls in hand
Report Post »wash1776
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:03pmNo one knows the full story yet. How long were the payments delinquent? Has it been since her husband died? Is she working? If not, is it by choice or the job market? Whatever the problems are, we don’t know all of the facts. However, if the ashes were not taken by mistake, that is totally reprehensible. The loss of her husband and the chalet is punishment enough.
Report Post »Spawnomite
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:03pmLet’s hope Bank of America gets some bad publicity from this.
Report Post »They have deep pockets and could easily offset it with an agressive marketing campaign to be “your friendly neighborhood bank” but the fact remains, they are basically grave robbers.
swalt
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:01pmThere is obviously more to the story than we are being told. Either the bank really screwed up, or the woman really screwed up. Either way, whoever went into the home and threw all of her belongings away should be held accountable.
Report Post »TombstoneJim
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:00pmWelcome to Amerika Comrade
Report Post »AzDebi
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:57pmDidn’t pay her mortgage? We don’t know that people…what the story says is…
“Bank of America had WRONGFULLY FORECLOSED” on her house and thrown out her belongings, without alerting Ms. Ash beforehand.
What do they mean by WRONGFULLY FORECLOSED?
In an era when millions of homes have received foreclosure notices nationwide, lawsuits detailing bank break-ins like the one at Ms. Ash’s house keep surfacing. And in the wake of the scandal involving shoddy, sometimes illegal paperwork that has buffeted the nation’s biggest banks in recent months, critics say these situations reinforce their claims that the foreclosure process is fundamentally flawed.
Report Post »123abc
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:03pmWell, I’ve been a homeowner for many, many years and I’ve never had a house foreclosed on. Not my first mortgage or my vacation home. As TJexcite said, banks don’t just make errors like this. And law enforcement would have been involved.
I’m not buying her “sob story”.
Report Post »MsMonsoon
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:13pmABC123: WAKE UP! Banks have been screwing up big time with mistakes and shoddy procedures in this massive wave of foreclosures. Where have you been??
Report Post »123abc
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:23pmMsMonsoon stick to posting on the San Francisco Chronicle, Huffington Post or Democrat Underground. It will suit you better.
Haven’t you been listening to the news. 100% of those foreclosures were JUSTIFIED. The just didn’t dot an “i”, that’s all. Most of them had not made payments for more than 1 year.
Report Post »123abc
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:55pmGo to the NY Times web site & read the whole story, she was YEARS behind on her payments.
Report Post »the_ancient
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 3:01pm@123ABC– 100% is a very strong claim and not supported by any facts, you can claim and be correct in that the VAST majority of them are correct, but mistakes do happen, Daily Caller had outlines a number of worst cases awhile back (oct I think) Here is a Story about BoA taking a guys home after he paid cash for it, http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-10-07/man-who-had-no-mortgage-faced-foreclosure-anyway-ann-woolner.html
I am not saying banks should not be allowed for Foreclose, but there are ALOT of states, about 20 If I remember correctly, that there is limited or no court oversite in the process, it is merely a failing with that county, so do not spot off like your an expert in the subject.
Report Post »RantNationDotCom
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 6:53pm‘Till debt do us part…
Report Post »TJexcite
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:54pmIf she was all right with the bank they would not have got her name on a foreclosure list. Banks are not that incompetent and they triple check many times to make sure they have the right people and then it still takes along time and most need to get sheriffs to be present when they do take possession of it. She was on the list. If she was not, the bank would not get just civil lawsuit they would criminal theft charges.
And just another bias report from the fish wrap of record. Take what they want, spin and remove all the facts so no one knows the whole story in that she has not paid for the house in months.
Report Post »MsMonsoon
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:17pmWhat planet are you living on? Have you ever had an account of any kind with B of A? The are the worst at screwing up!
Report Post »123abc
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:21pmignore the conservative site troll above this post
Report Post »yanki161
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:52pmAsh’s ashes…. we ALL fall down.
Report Post »Rob_M
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:52pmGood luck getting holder to take this up hehe.
Report Post »jakartaman
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:50pmShe should rob her nearest Bank of America
Report Post »What’s the difference?
PatriotDaze
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:47pmNope…..We don’t need no stinking gubmint regulations. None indeed.
Report Post »GEW
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:45pmAlso, I thought only the IRS could do this. In Texas they should break in with extreme causation- cause if I head someone pickin at my door I would have my shot gun pointed at their heads as they entered IF I allowed them to enter at all.
Report Post »packsack54
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:43pmWelcome to government or corperate holy than thou atitude. Can not do anything wrong.
Report Post »123abc
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:43pmIf she had made her payments on time this wouldn’t have happened. She was there for a weekend “ski trip” so she obviously can afford it. Sorry, no sympathy.
Report Post »MsMonsoon
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:08pmWhat part of WRONGFULLY foreclosed don’t you get? Read the story all the way through.
Report Post »hologram5
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:11pmRead the article or are you illiterate?
Report Post »123abc
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:20pmI did read the article (twice) and I’m not illiterate you FOOL. There is no such thing as a real wrongful foreclosure. This is quite clearly one of the foreclosures where the proper paperwork wasn’t shuffled. Banks don’t make mistakes like this. I’ve ownded MANY homes – first and vacation – and have never had a foreclosure or the threat of one.
Report Post »123abc
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:56pmShe was YEARS behind on her payments. The foreclosure was justified.
Report Post »MsMonsoon
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 2:28pmJust where did you read… years behind?
“More common are cases like Ms. Ash’s, in which a homeowner was behind on payments, perhaps trying to work out a modification, when bank crews changed the locks. “
Report Post »the_ancient
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 2:50pm@123ABC, There are DEFIANTLY things such as WRONGFUL foreclosure, it happens ALL OF THE TIME, hell in many states they dont even need to go through the courts, just submit paper work to the Recorders office, so there is no check on the procedure.
There are stories after stories of people having there houses taken, some of which HAD NO MORTGAGE AT ALL, but the paper work the bank had simply has the wrong address, you know 1205 instead of 1250, and no one caught the error because they are just rubber stamping the damn things
Report Post »BOUGHT YOUR SILO YET?
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:37pmUnbelievable! So, it was a WRONG foreclosure! I would get them on breaking and entering, burglary, and kidnapping.
Report Post »givemelibertyorgivemedeath
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:03pmESPECIALLY…. kidnapping!!!
Report Post »DMcPher316
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:36pmThats just creepy. I‘m sure whom ever took it didn’t know what the hell it was. Aside from that, this woman HAS A SKI CHALET, must have money and she can‘t make her flippin’ mortgage payment? The bank may have done things wrong, in which case I say, make them fix it. But if you don’t pay your mortgage, they have every right to take the property back. As for her, I wish that some wealthy people woould stop gaming the system just to get over. I don’t have anything against the rich, more power to them for getting that way but some of them like to screw everybody else alittle too much. Straighten it out inm court, give her back the ashes (shudder) and keep the house if she owes money on it….they’d sure as hell take mine
Report Post »MsMonsoon
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:28pmWhat part of WRONGFULLY foreclosed don’t you get! And what part of THROWN OUT don’t you understand? How do you get anything back that was thrown out?!
Report Post »Mikee T
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:35pmExcuse me……….not excusing anything these banks do now but, a question ? If you stopped paying your mortgage why didn’t you take some preventative measures like removing your personal belongings from your residence ? Don‘t tell me she didn’t get repeated mail correspondences plus, most likely, civil court notices with regard to the pending foreclosure …..c’mon….wake up people…
Report Post »13GenAmerican
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:54pm“Bank of America had WRONGFULLY foreclosed on her house and thrown out her belongings, without alerting Ms. Ash beforehand.”
She had been paying her mortgage……………WRONGFULLY FORECLOSED!!!!!!!!
Report Post »wash1776
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:57pmDON‘T TELL YOU SHE DIDN’T GET LOTS OF WARNING? WAKE UP PEOPLE? You don‘t really have any idea what she got or didn’t get.Breaking into her home was wrong. They should have come with papers when she was there. If the person that took the box realized what was in it—that makes that person the lowest of the low. That would indicate they are holding the ashes as leverage over this woman. Whatever she may be guilty or not guilty of—the ashes should be returned. With the fees these banks charge for everything now, they are legalized thieves. They should get the money owed to them, but the charges they come up with are out of line in many cases to say the least.
Report Post »LAMET
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 4:09pmits not the first time that BoA foreclosed on the wrong properties – there have been at least 2 others in the news. I’m sure there are far more.
This is just the robo-signing of foreclosure documents without reading them and validating they had the correct information. That BoA have stated has not resulted in errors
Of the 2 I read about over the past year 1 was due to incorrect address on the foreclosure docs.(the property they were really foreclosing on was down the street.
Report Post »the other HAD no mortgage on it all – the property owners already held the title..
AzDebi
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:31pm“Bank of America had wrongfully foreclosed on her house and THROWN OUT her belongings”…Including her dead husband’s ashes?…You have got to be kidding me?????Now…here’s a law suit I can really get behind! Is there any doubt America that we are in REAL trouble?
Report Post »123abc
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:49pmI’m sure this was likely one of those dotting the i & crossing the T “wrongful” foreclosures that were all over the news a month or two ago.
Report Post »ADDICTED TO TRUTH
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:30pmLovely. What a wonderful world we live in.
Report Post »DMcPher316
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:30pmwait…wait..wait. This woman has a ski resort chalet….which means she HAS money. Why did she forfeit on the mortgage? I’d say the bank, if they did things the right way, should be allowed to keep the house, just give back the ashes…thats just plain creepy. Here we have another person with wealth gaming the system. I have nothing against the wealthy, more power to them, just do what is right, pay your taxes and mortgages and stop trying to get over on the rest of us.
Report Post »IAMMADDOG
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:41pmBank of America had wrongfully foreclosed on her house and thrown out her belongings, without alerting Ms. Ash beforehand.
Report Post »At least thats what the article says.
Flagwaver
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:54pmThis sounds more like tactics in Nazi Germany than in America.
Report Post »TheBMT
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:57pmSo what they are saying is they foreclosed on a house that wasnt supposed to be foreclosed on.
Report Post »tobefreeinmt
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:04pmAre you F ed in the head or something? What do you mean “get over on you”? Ooo, wait, she has money! You sound to me like another bitter-cuz-your broke nitwit. She could have 50 chalets, and it makes no difference. None! What if it were your chalet? Or is that a stretch?
Report Post »crazedbanshee
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 2:11pmUm, I am a little disturbed by the responses to this. Is no one paying attention to the fact that this woman was most likely not paying her mortgage? What is wrong with the Bank posessing WHAT THEY PAID FOR? If she was not making payments this should have been expected, if she was making payments then it was burglary (I doubt they are that stupid). We need more info.
Report Post »firstHat
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 2:21pmyeah, I want to know more before we start blaming the big bad banks. I have no love for bank of america, but then we don’t know what really happened in this story. I’m a bit put off by the fact that the word “alleged” doesn’t appear in the article. It smells a bit like spin to me.
Report Post »iheartusa
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 2:26pmIf you read the last line correctly “The culprit, Ms. Ash soon learned, was not a burglar but her bank. According to a federal lawsuit filed in October by Ms. Ash, Bank of America had WRONGFULLY foreclosed on her house and thrown out her belongings, without alerting Ms. Ash beforehand.” It’s best to read comprehensively before commenting! Merry Christmas my fellow Americans!
Report Post »hkyfan36
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 2:47pm@IAMMADOG
Report Post »Yes and the article was also written by the NYT. I belive the NYT as much as I do Ed Schlutz. They rarely get the facts straight. So before we go placing any blame on either side I say we let the REAL facts come out
8jrts
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 6:10pmWhether they foreclosed rightfully or not, the ashes should NOT have been thrown out or taken and stored. They should have been given to her. If anyone took my husbands ashes, there would be h-ll to pay and pay they would!!
Report Post »guyperram
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:27pmThey are to big to fail, just ask the dem’s. Actually the are so screwed up that they do not know what is going on, and they are totaly out of control.
Report Post »All they do know is that they want to get as many hard assets as possible into their hands before what they know is about to happen, happens.
drattastic
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:26pmSniff sniff I smell a lawsuit.Big time !
Report Post »J.C. McGlynn
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:25pmCan you say “LAWSUIT?”
Report Post »MsMonsoon
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:06pmGood luck suing B of A. They’re in the pocket of the government BIG TIME!
Report Post »GEW
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:25pmI have heard that they can change the locks and that they can move your stuff to the curb side, but they can not take your possessions and keep them. Surely B of A took them to a storage place. Right?
Report Post »CatB
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 10:56pmlol .. I had a cd at B of A .. I didn’t like it when they were catering to illegals so I went in to close it out when it renewed .. they were the nastiest rudest people I have EVER dealt with … I would never deal with them for anything again .
Report Post »cubber
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:24pmCan your spell BIG BROTHER. BE PREPARED.
Report Post »Dustyluv
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:30pmSure it wasn’t the IRS was looking for spare change?
Report Post »Cobra Blue
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:31pmBig Brother is correct. Good luck claiming your belongings. Remember! Barney “I like Franks” Frank created the mortgage industry collapse. Now the very people that created the problem are pointing fingers at the industry. Why would you EVER think this was an accident and why would you ever think you will compensated for your life being turned upside down. Stay focused. There is more to come…count on it. Bottom Up…Inside Out….Top Down.
Cobra Blue
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:36pmSorrry to be the barer of bad news…but B of A is in the back pocket of the Fed’s. Don’t expect satisfaction. You are ultimately going against the Fed.
Report Post »wash1776
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:48pm@DUSTYLUV!! That was VERY FUNNY!!
Report Post »cessna152
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 12:57pmWhat a pain in the “Ash”….
DimmuBorgir
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:04pmThe bank stole our vacuum cleaner, it was a really nice one too. mind you they did this while we were already moving out. they changed the locks so when i went to get the vacuum i had to break in the windows…broke alot of other crap too, have fun selling that
Report Post »hologram5
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:05pmBig brother better bring buddies and body bags for themselves when they show up at my door as I got a shotgun with bear slugs just‘a’watin’.
Report Post »independentvoteril
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:06pmIt’s a shame.. Bank of America stinks.. I had my original mortgage at Countrywide.. (didn’t know their scam).. B of A got it cause we were a good risk.. We tried to get our mortgage interest lowered cause we have borderline EXCELLENT credit and my husband makes enough to support us both and a stable job.. we bought a home that was older, made upgrades and while our house is only worth what we paid for it (well about 1500 more) with housing prices going DOWN they WON’T refinance without 20% down.. (I think I was suppose to slip the appraisal man a few hundred dollars for a better appraisal but I didn’t know that).. I find that INSANE we are living in the house.. it’s our only home.. we’ve lived here 7 years ..now.. we need to make a down payment on something we own and are paying to get it refinanced.. We are NOT asking for any more money than what the house is worth.. no cash out at all.. I think it might also be I told them I DID NOT want a FANNIE or FREDDIE LOAN.. which I think is what they wanted us to do..come spring we will try another bank.. but pretty much they are all the same OWNED BY THE GOVERNMENT..
Report Post »Trance
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:09pmYeah, it‘s always the fault of the bank when people don’t make payments for 7 years and get forclosed. You’d think she would have gotten a clue when she got the default letter in 2007, and they had a forclosure sale in 2008. I‘m getting sick of the excuses people make when they don’t want to repay the loans the banks gave them. It sucks that she was burglarized, but I don’t have a lot of sympathy for these lowlifes. Please pay your bills.
ChiefGeorge
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:10pmBanks are evil…especially Chase!
Report Post »Luckywon
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:11pmHmmmm Ash’s Ashes were taken. Why did she keep them in her ski lodge? Or was the wording wrong in the story? It appears that this was not her main home, but a second home in the mountains used for ski vacations.
Report Post »oldoldtimer
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 1:52pmIs BOA the one that will open bank accounts for illegals with no SSA required? Banks are doing the same thing they did in the 1930′s. Oh, how history repeats itself. Any one that does business with BOA must approve of their Gestapo tactics. Funny how it is homes with high equity that they foreclose on first using Obama loan stealing plan(loan modification) It actually pushed people into foreclosure by delaying their payments that have to go through Fannie and Freddie. When you try to straighten it out you find the very same people you talk to at the bank are the same people you talk to at Fannie and Freddie. They are one and the same. Since you must make a complete financial disclosure they know you do not have the money to catch up on you 3 month trial payment at the end of which the bank says you do not qualify and starts immediate foreclosure and gives you 14 days to pay up or move out. When you make the payment (with help from a relative) they start demanding to know where the money came from. Repeatedly! Yes, it happened to my son. He never had a late payment in 10 years until he tried to get the loan modification. Then he had 3 thanks to delayed payments through Fannie and they used that as a reason to try to foreclose. 53 phone calls and 9 certified letters later he did a regular refi at an even lower rate and got away from BOA. The refi company told him this was standard practice for BOA and some other banks. This was the whole purpose of the Morgage Modification program. Legal theft of your equity. They only give modification to those that owe way over the value of the home and have no equity because they stand to lose so much money.
Report Post »untameable-kate
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 2:36pmindependentvoteril
Report Post »I broke my leg last year falling out of a tree and had to ask the bank if there was any way to defer my house payments for two months since I couldnt work with a busted leg. They instead gave me a loan modification (which is NOT what I asked for) promising the whole time they were actually doing what I had originally asked for. They added twelve years to my mortgage. They won’t work with anyone to do what we want they just go around doing whatever they please with our homes and therefore our lives.
untameable-kate
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 3:13pmIn reading the whole story it looks like Mrs Ash was behind on her payments which means the bank was probably justified in taking the property. The implication that she wasn’t notified is hard to believe though, the banks are pretty thorough about things like this.
Report Post »CultureWarriors
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 4:00pmIt was George Bush’s fault. He should have paid her mortgage for her. /sarc
Question : Why are we having all these forclosures? Isn’t everyone getting Obama money?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIqryU3Sp54
Report Post »VanGrungy
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 6:31pmImam Obama needs an Eagle’s Nest…
Report Post »Taquoshi
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 8:44pmindependentvoteril
You might want to see if you can become a member of a credit union. They might be able to help you out, particularly since you apparently have good credit.
Regarding BOA, I know of two instances when people made payments and they were not credited to the accounts properly, resulting in charges, which they refused to reverse. I also had some problems with them when closing out an account and they kept sending me notifications that I was overdrawn (the account had been closed more than three months earlier after several months of inactivity).
Unfortunately, another family member has an account there, so I am forced to deal with them, but I am extremely careful to keep all counter receipts and check the statements very carefully every month.
Report Post »Blazergirl
Posted on December 22, 2010 at 11:59pmBank of America is bad news. I read in my local newspaper a few days ago that Bank of America foreclosed on a man’s home that he owned out right! Apparently they have done this quite a few times. I’m sure this is one of the reasons why wekkileaks wants to expose these “Too big to fail” crooks. Remember banks are only looking out for themselves no matter who they have to crush to stay afloat.
Report Post »*************************
Posted on December 23, 2010 at 1:02am“GET THE HELL OFF MY LAND, MISTER” and ol’ Betsy are the cure for that.
“Unfortunately, there is one thing standing between me and that property … the rightful owners.” -HEDLEY LAMARR, Blazing Saddles
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