Are 36th district court bailiffs helping to loot the city?

[ragnarok1981]

Since the foreclosure crisis began I have heard the occasional rumor that when an eviction was done by the bailiffs that they would help themselves to anything valuable left in the home. I always just thought they were just rumors until today. I live in Palmer Woods where unfortunately we are having to deal with foreclosed homes more and more. Recently there was a home that was in immaculate shape and got caught up in the whole foreclosure limbo so we were never quite sure what was going on with the home. In August this home was attacked by strippers who went in with blow torches and sledge hammers and yanked the copper pipes and wires from the home. Despite the damage the house was still fantastic. Today an eviction was carried out and the bailiffs came and removed the kitchen appliances. These were very new, very expensive appliances, ie. a subzero fridge worth probably 10000 dollars. The neighbors thought it was strange to have the appliances ripped from the home and put out in a trailer but because they were officials from the court the neighbors could really not do anything about it. About 10 minutes after the court officials left a van pulled up looked around and then left and came back shortly with a UHaul truck. The two men driving these vehicles then proceeded to try to load the range top stove into the UHaul. Thankfully our neighbors stopped them and managed to get license plates and strangely enough the guys gave their names and one of them showed a neighbor their drivers license. These guys claimed that they were there to pick up the appliances for the former home owner, but when the home owner was contacted he had never heard of them. One of the neighbors googled the names and both guys were found on facebook. One appears to be a police officer from Ecorse. So it looks to us like it was all planned so that the bailiffs would come and remove the appliances from the home and leave them in an unlocked trailer for their buddies to come snag a short time later.
I am wondering if other people have seen this happen in other parts of Detroit or places in Wayne county.

[lilpup]

Haven't seen it happen but you should check with the court to see if the first removal was legit - it might have been since the bank probably [[guessing) has the right to seize assets left in the home in lieu of payment. I know the tow company I once worked for got calls from the court to impound assets in tax and other non-payment cases. We *never* left a loaded trailer behind, though. Nothing was ever left unattended. Even if it took multiple trips back to the yard we left someone there to keep watch because *we* at that point were liable for the assets. And we always did the removal under a court officer's or police supervision, neither we nor they did it independently of the other.

[daddeeo]

Nothing should surprise you anymore with all the ripoffs going on.
It's too bad that you have to think of that right off the bat but if more
neighbors looked out for each other maybe some of this wouldn't happen so much.
Getting that license number was a good move.
Like Desi used to say, "Someone's has got some 'xplaining to do."

[Zacha341]

Hmm, I thought the court ordered bailiffs just came to remove furniture and stuff from a tenant who was not paying or the like. Not sure of the process for a home in foreclosure. Is it a 'banks recovery-of-assets' option as someone mentioned? What I do know is that once the 'scrappin' buzzards' come, the smell hits the air they all comes out. Blow torches and hammers? Yeah that's scrapping for sure.

[Goose]

Today an eviction was carried out and the bailiffs came and removed the kitchen appliances. These were very new, very expensive appliances, ie. a subzero fridge worth probably 10000 dollars. .

hmmmm, brand new $10,000 refridgerator yet they had a hard time making their mortgage payments? wonder if they drove away from the home in their bently rolling on dubs......

[thatguy123]

Common practice in a foreclosure. Once the place is foreclosed that property ends up on the curb for garbage pickup. It is common practice for the repo guys to take some items. Same as with a repossessed card

[Ray1936]

I would drop a dime to the Chief of Police in Ecorse. Or to the Freep.

[Goose]

Common practice in a foreclosure. Once the place is foreclosed that property ends up on the curb for garbage pickup. It is common practice for the repo guys to take some items. Same as with a repossessed card

'tis true

with a home repo the occupants have PLENTY of notice of what day they are coming... they basically glue the notice to the front door, once all the stuff is moved to the curb it's basically a free for all......

a bit different with a car, although you know you are behind on payment, they don't give you a time and day they are coming to get the car.....

[Kell31]

I used to work in a real estate office. I handled the property management side of it all. It was a normal occurrence that the deputy would show up evict the person at that point, often telling them they had one hour to completely vacate the premises. After that the Deputies would help themselves to anything left behind. Then a crew would show up and get the rest of any valuable or anything of value out. And finally then they would call our office and tell us the eviction was finished. At that point we would start to get bids on "trashing out" the property. Pictures would be taken to show how much trash was in the place.

I never saw anything of normal value in trash pictures. I once saw parts for a drum set [[the guy was in a band) that were cased up and by a door but when the trash out team arrived I went over to the property and the cases were missing. I received many calls from people who were very upset that their valuable's were seized by the deputies. I even got a call where a woman told me her son was stopped from taking out a TV and told he needed to go back and get more practical things like clothes. She asked me if she could get the TV [[two days later) and I had to inform her that in all of the pictures there was no TV.

The guy I worked for was incredibly shady. He told me this was the way it always worked in Detroit and I being naive myself, believed him. I didn't agree, but I followed the guy who gave me my check. To this day I regret ever working for a guy like that. The things he did in his "real estate" business were criminal. Criminal by what the law says and criminal morally.