Posted on 08/23/2004 10:34:52 AM PDT by CFW
The Associated Press - COLUMBUS, Ga.
A complaint has been filed accusing a Muscogee County deputy marshal of allowing neighbors to pick through the belongings of a woman who had been evicted.
Virginia Upshaw, 45, says that after being evicted from her three-bedroom trailer, her belongings were hauled outside and placed near the road. Neighbors then took her possessions with the permission of the deputy marshal, she said.
Marshal Kenneth Suddeth, who was not there when Upshaw was evicted, has turned the matter over to Commander Mark Lott, who said he is unable to comment until the investigation is complete.
Upshaw said she did not know the deputy marshal's name. Suddeth and Lott refused to say which deputy was at the scene during the Aug. 16 incident.
Sgt. 1st Class Jay Johnson, who lives at Fort Benning, said he was visiting a friend in the mobile home park and tried to help take Upshaw's belongings to safety. He said he pleaded with Upshaw's neighbors to leave her belongings alone.
"I said, 'You can't take this lady's stuff,' " Johnson said.
Johnson said a deputy marshal stood across the street and watched while items such as furniture, televisions and clothes were taken.
"He said it was OK," Johnson said. "When someone asked the marshal if Ms. Upshaw could call the cops, he said, 'Why? It's free stuff.'... Everybody was saying the marshal said it was OK, and he never disputed that."
A neighbor, who admits taking some of Upshaw's furniture and clothes, backs up the account. But Scarlett O'Hara said she later returned the items.
"The marshal said the stuff belonged to the community," O'Hara said. "We asked if we would get in trouble if we got anything, and he said no... I got two TVs, an entertainment center, a bag of clothes and a big picture. But my heart wouldn't let me keep it. I felt like she was being wronged."
There are some cold..cold folks in this world (and some on FR).
It's not a crime when stuff is put on the street, it gets reduced to trashpicking. What about the crime when the tenant steals several hundred dollars a month from the landlord?
My whole point is the eviction was over, this person is on the street. What does it say when these people are taking their neighbor's belonging? What does it say when this deputy stands by and allows it to happen? What does it say when conservatives on a conservative website are almost gleeful this happened?
I am in shock at what I am reading here.
YES!
Her stuff was trash that SHE had already refused to remove. Her stuff was hauled out to the street as trash. Landlords and police agencies cannot be expected to take custody and preserve all trash that anyone wants to leave laying around until that want it back.
The neighbors are FREE to take some of the trash before it is hauled to a landfill.
You are a shameful person.
And I alway though I was shameless....
OK, you want the whole story. Here it is.
A friend and I bought a house in the ghetto in Detroit. It was a two unit home in decent shape. Two girls lived upstairs and a guy lived on the first floor. His rent was partially payed by the state and he was responsible for the balance. We floated him for 6 months without receiving a penny. In court, he swore to the judge that he would pay in 30 days. We gave him 60 before we filed for eviction.
Court cost me a day off work, court costs and parking. Bailiff cost me a few hundred bucks. 8 months partial rent was a few hundred more. All this time, this fine gentleman was living under MY ROOF for free.
Did I feel bad that his neighbors took all his stuff? Sure. Was I willing to pay for security for a guy who scammed me for all kinds of money? Not a chance.
BTW, we were decent landlords. We put most of the rent back into improvements to the home. Windows constantly broke, stuff was stolen, the poor dears thought lighting a fire in the bedroom was a cool idea too. One of the girls became a total crack whore. She was actually turning tricks while we were working on the house.
One day, we replaced the tile on the kitchen floor. The next day, there was a 8 foot gouge across the entire floor.
Happy now?
Really? I see that as larceny. The property doesn't change ownership just because of the eviction. Granted, securing it is problematic, but it still belonged to the evictee and those who took some are thieves.
"What does it say when these people are taking their neighbor's belonging? What does it say when this deputy stands by and allows it to happen? What does it say when conservatives on a conservative website are almost gleeful this happened?"
It says that there are a lot of miserable, nasty people who share the earth with us.
When you legally evict someone and place their property on the street, the property is considered abandoned. The people who were taking it were comitting no crime.
Trailer parks are a racket to begin with.
You move into one largely because you can't afford to live elsewhere. So, in many cases, residents are young teens struggling to get by and elderly people, and people who work part time and full time jobs that don't pay too well.
The landlord can evict you at any time with notice. This means that you have to have a place to move your trailer if you own it. And you have to have between 800 - 2500 dollars to pay to move it banked. If you can't move it, you lose it. Or, they evict you from the property and continue charging you rent until you make arrangements. In either case, they have you over a barrel.
I lived in a trailer park for 9 years. The last mobile home I lived in before getting a good job and a real house, they're still trying to tax me on though I never owned it.
The park managers lied about my owning the place and the local assessor's office is now telling me that my word for when I left there doesn't count with them because they've already taken the word of the park owners on when I left there - (so that the park owners don't have to pay taxes on a home they never titled). There's a whole lot more of a story there - quite involved; but, upshot is, they are still trying to screw me on it.
Don't ever ever ever live in a trailer.
"Happy now?"
I can tell you are a rookie. I used to take it personally when tenants took me for a ride as well. For your own sanity, it is best if you stop that now.
Develop a non emotional method of dealing with deadbeats and stick to it. Don't even listen to tenant excuses. Accept that you will lose a certain amount to deadbeats as a price of doing business. If you cannot deal with deadbeats unemotionally, you should probably look for another line of work, as this one will drive you crazy.
That's a load of horsesh!t. The property is no more abandoned than a wallet dropped on the street or a bicycle left unlocked in public.
You move in in July or August and never pay rent. It takes about 6 months for the case to actually make it into court. You then claim harship because it's winter, so the court stays the proceedings until the spring. Hopefully, the case gets bumped back until winter rolls around again. If things go your way, you get to live rent-free for a couple of years.
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