When Repo Men Clear Out the Wrong House

A West Virginia woman returned to her home Aug. 6 to find it empty and two men loading the last of her furniture into their truck.

The men worked for a repossession company and told the woman, Nikki Bailey, her house was being “foreclosed on,” local media outlets reported.

Bailey’s home was paid for in 1988, so foreclosure made no sense. A look at the paperwork revealed the problem: The men had the wrong house.

Bailey, resident of 39 Godby Street in Logan, is now without most of her belongings. They were all thrown away by the men, who were supposed to be doing this at 39 Godby Heights — 10 miles away, near Chapmanville. She is one of a number of U.S. homeowners who have been on the wrong end of a mistake like this.

The cause of the miscommunication and the name of the bank that ordered the repossession remain unclear, local media reports.

The men had told her the stuff was junk, and they took it to the dump. She caught them as they were loading a dresser, mirror and chest of drawers into the truck.

“Everything was gone,” Bailey said to WSAZ, a West Virginia TV station. “Living room furniture, my Marshall diploma, my high school diploma, my pictures — my history. I was teacher of the year. All of that stuff is gone — certificates from that. It's all gone.”

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