Foreclosure Error Ruins Couple's Retirement Home

Subcontractors took valuables, destroyed house
By Mark Russell,  Newser Staff
Suggested by The_Old_Wolf
Posted Sep 8, 2012 6:01 AM CDT
Foreclosure Error Ruins Couple's Retirement Home
A retired couple near Twentynine Palms, Calif., had their home ruined and ransacked by Wells Fargo subcontractors who foreclosed on the wrong address.   (Shutterstock)

It was just a small desert home near Twentynine Palms, California, but it was all paid for, and Alvin and Pat Tjosaas intended on spending their retirement there. Too bad Wells Fargo decided to foreclose on it anyway. The bank sent subcontractors to the wrong address, and despite a different name appearing on the foreclosure notice, the subcontractors took anything valuable—including a garage full of heirlooms and Tjosaas' mason tools—then smashed the windows, tore down walls, and left the home in ruins, reports KABC.

Alvin Tjosaas, a retired mason, helped his father build the house in 1961, when he was just 14 years old. “I know every inch, every rock," he said. "My mom mixed all the cement by hand." Wells Fargo apologized and offered the couple $260,000 in compensation—but only after TV news outlets started asking questions. "When you put your heart into something…it makes me real sad. I’m just glad I have my sweetheart. We’ve been together a long time,” Tjosaas told CBSLA. (More Alvin Tjosaas stories.)

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