Foreclosure company seized man's property by mistake

COUPLAND, Texas (KXAN) - A Williamson County man says an agency that cleans up foreclosed properties hired to strip out his neighbor’s rural property, mistakenly took thousands of dollars of his things instead.

Included were: a backhoe, a boat and perhaps most important, family heirlooms. Now Mike Moors wants it all back, but the property recovery company that took his property won’t tell him where it ended up.

“There’s stuff that’s in those trailers that’s worth a lot more than gold to me,” Moors said.

Moors is lamenting the loss of family photographs, a 100 year-old wood chest filled with his wife’s childhood memories, even his wife's wedding dress. All that is left now of two storage trailers, are cinder blocks in the dirt.

Moors, 53, and his wife have been planning to retire on the 10-acre spot, with a view of Coupland, Texas to the west. He hadn’t been here in months, but a visit in late January revealed someone had broken into his barn.

“They just tore the place up, and they tore that timber in the barn out to get the backhoe out,” he said, adding a boat was also missing. The motor, and trailer without wheels, were left behind.

Moors called the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office to file a theft report. A detective deemed the case ‘unfounded’ once he learned a property seizure company was working for a mortgage firm.

Detective Brian Johns told Moors the company, Safeguard Properties of Ohio, was acting in good faith in carrying out the work order on behalf of CitiMortgage, the deed holder on the neighbor's property.

In an e-mail last month, Johns further explained to Moors that in order to have a theft, “You have to prove that a person intentionally and knowingly took your property with the intent of depriving you of it. We do not have that here.”

A check of Williamson County property appraisal records showed Moors’ property is clearly divided with his neighbor under foreclosure to the west. At ground level, it becomes less obvious since Moors shares a dirt road with that neighbor, and there is only one mailbox by the main road leading to the two lots.

Moors suspects the cleanup crew saw the barn and trailers and assumed they were connected to the foreclosed house several hundred yards farther down that dirt road. A fence and gate separates the two.

Moors’ other neighbors told him the crew showed up for a full day in mid-November. He said one neighbor even went over to check the site after seeing men with clipboards and work orders. He later told Moors they seemed to be legitimate so neither police, nor Moors, was called at the time.

When Moors complained to Safeguard in February about the mix-up, they would only tell him they were looking into it. He is now working with a lawyer.

For Moors, the loss is most painful when he recalls the contents of one trailer, where he said there were irreplaceable items.

“My wife’s wedding dress was in there. You can’t get those anywhere,” he said. “Every woman wants to give that wedding dress to her daughter. She won’t be able to do that anymore.”

Safeguard Properties spokesperson Diane Fusco told KXAN they admit a mistake in this case. “We want to be fair with him,” she said. “We are working with Moors to come up with a settlement as quickly as possible.”

Fusco said it's policy to not release any photos taken on the site or the name of the local contractor who did the work. She also said since several months have passed, Mr. Moors' property is likely disposed of.

She said Safeguard handles 14 million foreclosure cleanups each year. The Ohio-based company plans to expand into North Texas this spring. 

A look at the national Better Business Bureau site showed safeguard has a 'C' rating. Of 33 closed complaints from the last three years, five had to do with billing or collection issues. Some 28 related to problems with a product or service. Eleven of those complaints closed in the last 12 months.