Posted on 12/22/2009 1:12:35 PM PST by Tom Hawks
LAS VEGAS -- A Las Vegas woman says she was the victim of a horrible mistake that left her with an empty condominium and a lot of questions.
Nilly Mauck lived in her condominium for two years and said she never had problem until a series of strange events eventually led to a company coming into her home and throwing away everything she owned.
As Mauck walks around her now empty condo, she can't help but remember how things used to look. Every room in the home is empty and Mauck says the reason is a mistake of address numbers. Her address is 1157, which is right next to 1156, a condo that is in foreclosure.
SLIDESHOW: Pictures from inside the condo before the trash out
A few weeks ago, the foreclosed home was supposed to get locks changed but Mauck says that's not what happened. "I came home to pick up something and there was a note on my door from the Brenkus Team of Keller and Williams Realty stating that they accidentally re-keyed the wrong door," she said.
It was a problem Mauck thought was fixed, until she came home to find a man going into her home. Mauck says everything inside was missing.
She says she later learned her home had been trashed out, a process done to foreclosures where everything left inside is thrown away.
Mauck says she contacted the Brenkus Team. "I said give me $100,000 to $200,000 to replace my things because it will take time and that is being generous. And they said, ‘Ok, that is too much.' She called me that day and told me they were only willing to give me $5,000," she said. "My clothes, my wedding dress, baby pictures, wedding photos, my dishes, my towels, my jewelry, anything you could possibly have in your house. I kept asking them, ‘Where did you take my things because I was ready to go and dumpster dive,' and they had no answer for me."
She is now staying with friends, because she doesn't want to go back to her condo. "I do not feel secure because I know someone has access to my door," she said.
Attorney Michael Joe is a foreclosure specialist with the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada. He says a mishap similar to this happened six years ago when Countrywide emptied a condo belonging to Gerald and Katrina Thitchener in a mistaken foreclosure. "A number of people were sued. Countrywide ended up paying over $1 million in damages in that case," he said.
Joe says proper legal steps and notifications must be followed when homes go into default.
Mauck admits she is behind on her payments, but that doesn't change the fact they got the wrong house. For now, she is getting an attorney as she learns to live with just the clothes on her back.
Realtor Teri Brenkus with the Brenkus Team could not elaborate on the whereabouts of Mauck's belongings, but says they are doing what they can to resolve the matter.
The company hired to remove everything from the condo is Rob and Renea's Home Preservation. They also had no idea where Mauck's belongings are.
I like your idea, but would add "and she gets to go through their homes with a blowtorch or a bulldozer (her choice)".
Pay up or hang.
They've apparently picked "hang" as their option.
OH I didn't realize there was a second page of photos
Still seems pretty sparse for someone that’s lived there for two years.
> but if you reasonably thought you were authorized to do that act, you aren’t criminally responsible.
So in this case “color of right” is an absolute defense? If so, there must surely be a concomitant requirement to make good the “mistake”, otherwise what stops any/all burglars from claiming “color of right”?
Ms, Teri Brenkus, I don't think you have the brains to blow your noise, but if you do, you better write that woman a check pretty damn fast, before she has you arrested for breaking and entering and ETC, ETC,. You have screwed up big time.
Yes, such as a 90 day storage building.
Oh I agree. $200,000 for the value of the property, $500k for the hassle, and another $1 million for punitive.
Perhaps she was trying to pay her mortgage instead of out buying a bunch of crap.
I have been packing in preparation for moving when I get a buyer.
Just the things I have already packed are marked-box by box- and I sat down & made a rack of 3 x 5 cards in alpha order so I could find things I had already packed, as my memory is getting thinner each day.
I have over 1000 cards, listing items, and I am convinced that the replacement value is well over $100,000. One box had a set of brake shoes for my dually, and a new set of them is over $80. that is just one box. Tools I have accumulated over 50 years are a whole thing again!!.
4 saddles alone are over $3000 EACH to replace. I don’t even know the value of many of the small items that have been handed down thru 4 generations of parents, etc.
This woman better have a great attorney, but I think she has the mortgage company by the short hairs—.
She can still file a criminal complaint for all kinds of stuff...grand theft, conspiracy to commit theft...
Absolutely. You are responsible for your actions, and have to pay civil damages. Mistake of fact just saves you from criminal liability, and, assuming that you were not reckless, from punitive civil damages.
Criminals defendants do sometimes claim mistake, but it is a "do or die" defense, because you have to admit that you committed the actual act. Unless you are telling the absolute truth, it will very rarely help to use a mistake defense.
Rick and Teri Brenkus have LOTS of insurance (as mandated by Nevada law as a real estate brokerage). This woman can sue them and be just fine aside from getting her baby pictures back.
There are a lot of realtors in Las Vegas who are laughing their @sses off that the Brenkus’ are the ones who did this since they are about as hands-off as you can get and still be in the real estate business. They put their name on everything done in their company but they never touch anything themselves. Maybe a little personal attention would have avoided them this next huge judgement against them.
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