WASHINGTON — One of the few booming businesses in the nation’s crippled economy? Companies hired by banks to take over homes left empty by foreclosure. But ABC News has learned that in some cases, those companies are showing up before the foreclosure occurs and changing locks on the houses. ABC reports in one case, Darlene Dicinti and her husband have been fighting the foreclosure of their Florida home and had received a four-month extension by a judge. But two days after the Dicintis traveled to care for their sick grandmother, they returned to their home to find new locks and that their house had been ransacked. Their mortgage company had hired Safeguard, the largest of these companies hired by the banks. In another case, Nancy Jacobini told ABC a group broke into her Orlando, Fla., house while she was asleep. She called 911. The group turned out to be working for a bank and were changing the locks when police arrived. In that case, JP Morgan Chase now admits it made a mistake. In a Community Perspective earlier this summer, investigative reporter, author, blogger and filmmaker Danny Schechter recounted abuses by mortgage companies leading to the the collapse of the economy, foreclosure mistakes, and efforts by homeowners to fight back.
Monday, Oct. 11, 7:30 a.m.
