Bank of America Hijacks Parrot, Forecloses Wrong House
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) has a lot of explaining to do. According to a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania woman, the bank
took not only her home but also hung on to her parrot even after proof was offered Bank of America had the wrong house. The woman filed a lawsuit today against Bank of America.
Bank of America had ordered Snyder Property Services to ‘enter, seize, padlock’, ‘winterize’, and ‘take possession’ of the woman’s home because they believed it to be in default. The property service followed instructions and turned off the water, cut the power, and filled the drains with antifreeze. After the home was taken care of, the woman’s parrot was then taken from the home.
The woman, Angela Iannelli of Pittsburgh, arrived back at her home and found new locks on the doors, furniture and carpets that had been damaged, and her belongings strewn about. Most devastating, the parrot was gone. The plaintiff had been making her mortgage payments on time but contacted Bank of American, who did confirm the seizure of the home. They also admitted to knowing where the bird was located. The plaintiff states in her lawsuit that she continued to call to claim her bird but Bank of American told her to stop calling and hung up on her because they were ‘tired of hearing from her’.
It took a week before Bank of American would confess to making a mistake about seizing the wrong house. They also admitted the location of the bird, a three hour drive away which the plaintiff made to get the bird back.
In the lawsuit, the woman alleges that Bank of America was knowingly deceptive and does not have policies to prove foreclosure validity or to stop a wrong seizure from occurring. The plaintiff said that Bank of America did try to make offers to repair her damaged belongings once she obtained the services of a lawyer. Spokespeople for Bank of America declined to comment on the Allegheny County lawsuit.
This isn’t the first time Bank of America has foreclosed on the wrong house. There are several other lawsuits in other cities that allege improper foreclosures. In one such case, the contractor hired by Bank of America had the wrong address. In most other cases, the foreclosure mistakes were seemingly avoidable.




