Bank takes Wrong Home - video report

Bank of America Changes Locks, Takes Pet From Wrong Home

Bank of America foreclosed on Angela Iannelli’s house, locking her out and taking her 11-year-old Blue and Gold Macaw. Iannelli wasn’t behind on her mortgage payments.

An employee thought the house had been abandoned and sent a contractor to secure the property. It was quite a shock for Ms Iannelli when she came home from work and found her locks changed and Luke, the macaw, gone.

Banks aren’t known for being sympathetic. Late last year, a bank foreclosed on an animal sanctuary without providing basic care for the animals, or allowing the owner or animal welfare agencies onto the property to take care of them. But now your pets could be seized by the bank even when you’re up to date on payments?

Mortgage lenders haven’t had to deal with this many foreclosures since the 1930s. Nearly 15 percent of households with a mortgage are behind on their payments or in the foreclosure process. They can’t keep up, leaving many cities and states to come up with ways to deal with vacant properties on their own, including the care of abandoned animals.

People are responsible for taking care of their animals, even in tough economic times. Abandoning an animal in your home is inexcusable. If you can no longer afford your pet, there needs to be a Plan B to make sure she gets the care she needs, even if that means taking her to an animal shelter. But mortgage lenders have a responsibility, too. The majority of US households have pets, and there needs to be a protocol for handling them in a responsible and compassionate manner during foreclosures.

While it’s great that Bank of America wasn’t going to just leave Luke in a vacant house, the fact that he hadn’t been abandoned is a serious issue. There are enough people — and pets — suffering in this economy without bringing the problems to those who are doing okay. These lenders need to get their records straight.

Iannelli filed suit last week against Bank of America. As she tried to track down Luke, bank representatives gave her the run-around; they said they didn’t know where her pet was, that she should call the police if she was so worried about him, that they were tired of hearing from her. Days later, they finally told her Luke was at the contractor’s office. Though he had been wrongfully taken from her house, she was the one who had to drive two hours to pick him up.

She says Luke seemed nervous at first, but has since recovered.

This is outrageous! (my opinion).  Then I wonder how they handle this if someone is home?  I’m retired so I’m most always home…..........would I be taken to the contractor’s home?  Filing suite is not only appropriate but I think the bank’s sentence or fine should be that the home is now ‘PAID IN FULL’ for the owner, plus emotional damages along with hardship AND I think the parrot should also receive damage compensation for kidnapping!

Sue the bank and let them pay off the mortgage.
That will teach them.
Screw up and they end up with paying the bill in whole.

Wow. that’s some MAJOR screw=up by the bank (and their representative(s)).  Not only do they lock the lady out of her home in the middle of the day, they then steal her parrot and lie about doing so for a WEEK!

I think the lady ought to add a couple of zeroes to her $50k lawsuit, personally.  Anything smaller won’t really get their attention….

(And i can just see the CEO’s office this morning…. “You took her WHAT?!”   ) 

Seems like you could make a valid criminal case of burglary and theft out of this.

Wow, isn’t this like the 4th article about this??

An employee thought the house had been abandoned and sent a contractor to secure the property.

That right there seems to be what ought to be the real major point in this story.  Sure, the part about the parrot is bad, but it could have just been a lack of communication between the contractor and the bank or something like that.  But what’s behind all of that?  Did the bank employee not bother to check on the records of that house to see what was going on with it?  Did the person simply decide on his or her own initiative that the place was abandoned and called up the contractor, without bothering to find out anything about the house?  What was with the water lines being cut and all that other alleged damage?  The part with the parrot is just a side issue.