Miami - After Rosa Pierce left her home recently to take her
husband to work, a team of men broke into her home and changed
all the locks.
One man toting a weapon was a Broward County sheriff's
deputy, who took his order from a bank official, who also
directed a locksmith to change the locks before slapping an
eviction notice on Pierce's front door.
But there was a small problem: The official from SunTrust
was at the wrong house.
Pierce's address: 1609 N.W. 14th Ave. The
address on the eviction notice: 1609 N.W. 16th
St.
Pierce 72, might have come home to find herself locked out
of her home if not for the vigilance of neighbor Patty Wells,
who watched the goings-on from her own window in the Lauderdale
Villas area of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
"At first I thought she was dead when I saw the police,"
Wells said.
When she walked over to the house she was stunned to read
the eviction notice.
"They had the wrong address," she said.
Wells called the bank and told them of the goof.
Shortly after, Wells saw the same scene repeat itself - in
reverse: A bank representative and a locksmith scrambled to
the home and restored the original locks.
When Pierce cam home, nothing seemed out of place. Her
furniture was still there. Then Wells from the news to her.
"I am angry and embarrassed," Pierce said. "Did they have
the right to take the lock off my door and come into my
home?"
Pierce and her husband, Lenzie have lived in the home for 16
years. SunTrust doesn't even hold the mortgage on her home,
she said. Her financing is through NationsBank.
The Sheriff's Office passed the buck. A spokesman said
Deputy Gerald Damico was on his way to the correct address when
SunTrust representatives saw him and directed him to Pierce's
address.
Deputies tack notices on properties to warn tenants that
they have a certain amount of time to get off a property or be
evicted.
"The deputy asked if they were absolutely certain that it
was the right address, and the bank assured him that the house
where they changed the lock was the right house," spokesman
Kirk Englehardt said.
SunTrust officials admit they made a major mistake. "This
is the first time this has ever happened," said Katheryn Frost,
a first vice president of SunTrust. "The streets run very
close."
SunTrust bank officials met with Pierce at her home,
apologized for the mishap and gave her a bouquet of lilies.
Pierce said she felt embarrassed by the incident and just wants
to put it behind her. "They disgraced me," she said. "Now all
my neighbors think I'm an old woman selling drugs."
