Foreclosed Homes Trashed During "Sharpie Parties"

Not quite sure how I feel about this...wait, yes I do!

It's no longer the home of a family or family to be. No grandparents at a retired pace and no pets running around playing with the local kids. These are homes that have been foreclosed on by auto-signing, unethical, immoral criminals that took the money and ran.

But before they ran they made sure that someone didn't have a home to go back to. They made sure that families were uprooted and left to fend in parks, shelters, cars etc.

Meanwhile the damage is so severe at these parties that some will be condemned or cost bundles to repair before a bank can profit.

So how do I feel?

Where do I sign up?

fromthetrenchesworldreport.com...

AOL In the age of Facebook and Twitter, a new crime has hit America: “Sharpie parties,” gatherings of party revelers armed with “Sharpie” magic markers and lured by social media invitations to wreak havoc on foreclosed homes.

Five years into the U.S. foreclosure crisis, Sharpie parties are a new form of blight on the landscape of boarded-up homes, brown lawns and abandoned streets. They are also the latest iteration of collective home-trashing spurred by social media.

At least six Sharpie parties were reported in one California county in recent months, where invitations posted online drew scores to foreclosed homes.

The partygoers are handed Sharpie pens on arrival by their hosts and urged to graffiti the walls – a destructive binge that often prompts other acts of vandalism including smashing holes in walls and doors, flooding bathrooms and ripping up floors.

The California spree follows a similar outbreak earlier this year, when teenagers wrecked homes in states including Texas, Florida and Utah after seeing the movie Project X. The film features a house wrecking party sparked by online invitations.

And out come the search warrants for face book accounts. The resulting arrests produce the son of a family that was foreclosed on. Angry? Of course and rightly so.

“We obtained search warrants for Facebook accounts,” Hazel said. “It was very useful to us to get access to the social networks. They posted pictures of the party.

They were brazen about it.” Three men, aged 21, 24 and 30, were arrested on suspicion of felony vandalism, burglary and conspiracy. One of them was the son of the evicted former owner.

I know many of you will say that these are just punks or whatever acting out and using the situation as an excuse to commit crime and destroy something...the thrill if you will. And I will have to agree that a few if not many are in it for the kicks. But at least one kid wasn't.

And what do the banks do?

Banks that own the foreclosed homes are reluctant to pursue the perpetrators, Krotic says, because they don’t have the resources to hunt down the miscreants. Even if they’re caught, the unwanted publicity from their prosecution would likely incite more parties. “Usually they leave the damage and just drop the price,” Krotic said.

"Unwanted" publicity...you betcha!

Peace

While I understand and sympathize with the sentiment behind this, it's just juvenile and wrong.

What if every time someone didn't like an outcome they behaved like this? It's uncivil and it's criminal. It seems the height of irony and ignorance to be pissed off at the banks uncivil and possibly criminal behavior only to do the same.

Plus think of the natural resources wasted on revenge as well as the even further devalued properties surrounding these homes...

D0nt p0st it 0n faceb00k.. These pe0ple will be fel0ns n0w.

Sh0uld d0 it smarter. Invite a few 0f y0ur buddies 0ver n0t plastered 0n FB./

A inn0vati0n
F implemintati0n

I have a friend who bought a forclosed house in 2007. The house had a hole punched through every interior door, the air conditioner/heat pump was gone (probably sold off), windows were broken out of which 23 cats wandered in and out of the house pooping on everything..... The house was abandoned with all their possessions still in it. It was a huge mess for the bank and the person who bought it to turn it around to rent. Nothing would resell at the begining of the recession. Now the community there thanks the individuals who rent out houses with a fifty dollar registration fee/tax. I think anyone who takes on renting out a house to renters is a complete saint. Those empty forclosed houses really bring down a community's standing and invite crime. Communities should welcome the rehabbers with tax cuts and other bonuses, not tax them at 4% and lop on additional landlord registration fees. No one gets rich renting houses. There is no profit, it is a 30 year long term investment. The renters are often irresponsible, rude, manipulative late paying people who damage and destroy the property through neglect. Most of them don't even own a vaccume cleaner!

I like the idea!
Banks have made full clear that the only thing they want is the pay for our slave labor, I say Fudge em!
As long as the kids don't get caught and do not post on fb so the fbi can see, all is good.
FBI= FaceBook Inspector.
Stick it to the banks wherever you can, I dumped mine a looooong time ago.
I live just fine without it, so can you.
They cannot live without us!
It has been awesome not having bank fees of any sort, it is also nice knowing exactly how much I have and it cannot be skewed by bank greed error.

Originally posted by frugal
I have a friend who bought a forclosed house in 2007. The house had a hole punched through every interior door, the air conditioner/heat pump was gone (probably sold off), windows were broken out of which 23 cats wandered in and out of the house pooping on everything..... The house was abandoned with all their possessions still in it. It was a huge mess for the bank and the person who bought it to turn it around to rent. Nothing would resell at the begining of the recession. Now the community there thanks the individuals who rent out houses with a fifty dollar registration fee/tax. I think anyone who takes on renting out a house to renters is a complete saint. Those empty forclosed houses really bring down a community's standing and invite crime. Communities should welcome the rehabbers with tax cuts and other bonuses, not tax them at 4% and lop on additional landlord registration fees. No one gets rich renting houses. There is no profit, it is a 30 year long term investment. The renters are often irresponsible, rude, manipulative late paying people who damage and destroy the property through neglect. Most of them don't even own a vaccume cleaner!

Better yet, how about giving incentives to current renters?
Build a little incentive and equity in the US, I do not care for folks who come into an area and buy up houses by the dozens only to rent em out.
Just making a future slumlord is all.

Once a person gets pressed so hard by these criminals out there (I'm talking about the bankers etc) then people often snap.

Basically let me do a play by play and READ BETWEEN THE LINES FOR YOU...

"After we use sub prime mortgage fraud on you, or use some kind of underhanded legal trick or loophole to steal your house, or put you in a position where you can't afford it; then we the bankers etc expect you to take our pounding up your azz like a man! We expect you to hand over the property and be glad we didn't sue you as well. We expect you to mow the lawn, pay all the bills, and keep the property in tip top shape for us when we come and steal it. that way we can resell the stolen merchandise for top dollar slave. Now let us foock you up the azz cuz that's what we do best!"

I just bought a foreclosed home, I can understand the anger.

Ill give you an example, one of the first homes I went to see where still occupied.

The bank was allowing the family to live there until the house sold, if it sold they would be homeless.

I almost fired my realtor on the spot for showing me a home that was essentially a destitute family who I would be kicking out by buying it...

Never have I been so upset by the foreclosure process here until I saw that, How mercenary can we get when it comes to these homes.

I saw about 40 homes in my search, all foreclosures or per-foreclosure.

I can see why these people are doing that, I could only imagine the anger at being forced from a home by an uncaring bank.

I understand why they did it. The banks would raise your payment even if you paid it on time every month. Just a huge predatory lending scam..

Originally posted by RealSpoke
I understand why they did it. The banks would raise your payment even if you paid it on time every month. Just a huge predatory lending scam..

edit on 19-8-2012 by RealSpoke because: (no reason given)

People are getting angrier by the day and this is yet another example of just what is coming. People are going to fight back with a gun, knife or a sharpie...all good IMO.

Peace

Originally posted by RealSpoke
I understand why they did it. The banks would raise your payment even if you paid it on time every month. Just a huge predatory lending scam..

edit on 19-8-2012 by RealSpoke because: (no reason given)

If it was a fixed rate the only thing they can raise is the monthly amount of escrow, and it has to be justified by an increase in property taxes and/or home owners insurance.

Ha, i did this once. But i didnt make it into a party, i didnt post incriminating pictures on the internet. And i dont feel that i was in the right...

My local area has a extremely low market houses may sit empty for 5-6 years, a friend of ours, husband who was a business owner fell ill and had to get a few major surgeries. During this hard time they went into forecloser and were evicted, before they left her son and her gutted the place. Every expensive thing they replaced was removed, sold to people or given away. My friend said "they could take the D@MN home and sit on it". The mortgage company evicted her for being back 2 months, now they are not getting a dime, the house will sit empty for years, thats how stupid banks are!


I was lucky enough to have a unconventional mortgage held by a nice old lady in my town, the banks never took any interest in me because I had little credit, if you can help it, this is the way to go.

The whole notion of evicting someone from a property knowing it will sit empty for months or years is ridiculous. You've gotta hate how the world works, life bites you in the ass because society has been set up that way.

Sharpie parties sound fun though (Y)

This is a last resort tactc which is reserved for the SHTF......
The time is for active resistance to evicton....by legal means or other civil dsobedence methods....of a peaceful non destructve nature.....
Damn! A little organising and some basc common sense could have the very bank which is foreclosing, suurounded by demonstrators only too willing to explain to those passer bys the cruel and inhuman proceedures and actions these heartless corporate bastards are willing to perpetrate !
Can you imagne the depositors of a bank, learnng what their bank is dong to ther neighbours and friends, upon walking in to do theeir own busness?
I am sure settlements qwould be reached LOCALLY FASTER WTH MORE HEART INVOLVED....
We need to be concentrating on keeping the people IN their homes....
And also putting homeless back into houses which are now open to vandals...
We need to act together frstly to reclaim our own HUMAN DIGNITY...which has been surrendered to the PTB....
Possessing that .....WE, can then decide how we wish to address the many bloodsucking organisations and individuals whch plague our society, in fact setting themselves up to do so in perpetuity......
First they stole our DIGNITY as INDIVIDUAL HUMAN BEINGS.....
Afterwards the rest has been very easy..................
When people relise they can trust their neighbours far more than the goverment....well game over for goverment........
.

I understand the anger behind this but it is still wrong. The banks created this mess, yes, but the sharpies are only stooping to their level, which doesn't make them any better in my eyes.

Think about the person who finally got to buy a home (even a foreclosed one) and now has to practically rebuild what was destroyed.

I know this sounds crazy but it's not the house's fault. (Sorry, I had to say it)

Good for them. This will force these crooked investors to spend money to get these homes repaired, and contribute to the local economy.

Or sell very low, possibly back to the original owners.

Originally posted by poet1b
Good for them. This will force these crooked investors to spend money to get these homes repaired, and contribute to the local economy.

Or sell very low, possibly back to the original owners.

Lol ok.....

These people who do this never owned a home in the first place, so explain to me their motivation other than to F something up for fun. It is one thing for someone who thinks they were screwed to vandalize their own house, and another to just trash a house in some kind of party.

Do they really know who owns the house...maybe some family bought the house during an auction and they finally get their own house just to find it trashed with 10,000s of dollars in damage.

If we want to blame someone blame Barney Frank and crew for dictating that lenders give loans to everyone since they assumed that "owning a house is a right". Of course the lenders put people into loans they couldn't afford, of course this created predatory loan practices...no sh...it.

This is just another 99%ers type mentality that just cost everyone in the end....

Originally posted by phroziac
Ha, i did this once. But i didnt make it into a party, i didnt post incriminating pictures on the internet. And i dont feel that i was in the right...

And so now you are busted....

Two wrongs don't make a right.

Sorry.
Vandalism is vandalism.
Sure, the banks are predatory....that doesn't mean that gives people the right to act like animals.

I know there are plenty of instances where people have been abused by their lenders......people lost their jobs, their health, etc.
I also know many folks never qualified for the houses in the first place and bear responsibility as does the bank for the fraudulent mortgage.

Neither situation makes malicious destruction of property "OK"