A Dallas neighborhood is up in arms after the contents of a foreclosed home were dumped onto the home’s front lawn, drawing a crowd of people who rummaged through the items in search of valuables.
The home in the Hollywood Heights area of East Dallas sat vacant for years after the owner passed away, before finally being foreclosed on this week.
Crews showed up to the house Monday morning and emptied it out, depositing the home’s contents on the lawn, according to a report from WFAA-TV in Dallas.
From the WFAA report:
Piles of furniture, books, fine china and garbage bags covered most of the front lawn and sidewalk in front of the home on Monte Vista Drive. It drew a crowd of people who rummaged through the items in search of valuables. A RE/MAX sign was nearly hidden behind the debris.
"We take pride in our neighborhood, and this is not what we want by any means," said Garrett Youngblood.
Less than 24 hours prior, there was fine china and musical instruments buried beneath books and clothes.
"There's an organ that they just started beating down and just started taking pieces apart," Youngblood said of as many as 100 scavengers who rolled up in one day.
According to the WFAA report, the local deputy in charge of the eviction told the crews to place all of the items on the front lawn. Dallas City code apparently allows an authorized person to remove "personal property outside the rental unit at a nearby location, but not blocking a public sidewalk, passageway or street."
But that wasn’t the case, and the pile of stuff drew unwanted crowds. Eventually the bank that owns the property was sent a notice of violation and began to clean up the mess, but that wasn’t before “hundreds” of people showed up to raid the lawn full of belongings.
According to the WFAA report, none of the relatives of the home’s former owner stepped forward at any point in the foreclosure process to claim the belongings, leading to the events of this week.
Check out the video below for a look at the home’s current state.
Photo above courtesy of WFAA-TV.
