Submitted by Charlton Stanley (aka Otteray Scribe), Guest Blogger
There is one minor detail. Her house was paid off in full twenty-five years ago. She showed reporters around the house, and everything was gone to the bare walls. Her pictures, diplomas, awards, and all her belongings.
There is one additional important detail. Ms. Bailey lives on Godby Street in Logan, WV. The house in foreclosure is in Godby Heights. That is in Chapmanville, ten miles away.
Mrs. Bailey told a reporter from news station WSAZ, “Everything was gone. 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. It’s all gone.”
Adding insult to injury, the workers from CTM Industries told her they had inspected her things and considered them junk; therefore, they took everything to the dump. They had a couple of items remaining on their truck that had not yet been taken to the landfill. The repo company employees returned those things to her house on her insistence. Photographs of her house show it has been stripped of everything but the carpet…and the few items she was able to prevent them from hauling off
Ms. Bailey has retained an attorney, but the identity of the bank in question remains unidentified. The repossession company is not talking about who their client is. When reporters contacted CTM Industries to get a statement, the person answering the phone hung up.
Kanawha County Prosecutor Mark Plants indicated he was not going to pursue criminal charges. Prosecutor Plants opined, “It’s a lot like taking someone’s luggage at the airport. If I take a black bag, a black piece of luggage, get home and realize this is not my bag, that’s not a crime. That’s an accident,” He went on to say that no doubt somebody would have to make restitution, but no crime was committed.
Sorry Mr. Plants, taking someone’s life history from them and destroying it deliberately is not exactly like picking up the wrong suitcase at the airport. How do you make a victim whole when her diploma from Marshall University, her teacher of the year awards, her pictures and her memories are taken from her, pronounced as junk and hauled off to the landfill? A suitcase indeed, Mr. Mark Plants.
If there really is nothing they can be charged with, you could have talked all day Mr. Plants, and not say what you said to the reporter.
Television station WSAZ has the story with a video of their broadcast of the story.
This story is getting repetitious. A similar incident happened In Ohio. In that case, the bank is demanding sales receipts for all the property wrongly taken and sold at auction before they will consider making restitution. Several more incidents have been reported on this blog, here, here and here. That is just a sampling.
Please discuss. What do you think?