Woman Shoots Herself to Avoid Foreclosure Eviction
A woman had to shoot herself before Fannie Mae decided to stop foreclosure proceedings.
Ninety-year-old Addie Polk has come to represent the agony of the foreclosure crisis hitting the common citizen. She was hospitalized after she shot herself twice hitting the upper part of her body on Wednesday 3rd October. Akron residents have come forward in support of Polk who is in a critical condition at Akron General Medical Center as on Friday 5th October.
Reacting to the incident Brian Faith of Fannie Mae said that foreclosure proceedings have been dropped and the property has been signed off ‘outright’ to her. He said, “We’re going to forgive whatever outstanding balance she had on the loan and give her the house. Given the circumstances, we think it’s appropriate.”
Rep Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) raised the issue of Polk on the floor of the House on Friday during talks on economic remedies. Kucinich quipped that the bill bypasses the fate of the Addie Polks of the world. It fails to tackle the problem of millions facing foreclosure. The focus of the bill is on Walls Street. As a result “the market may go up for a few days, but democracy is going downhill.”
When Polk shot herself the noise made her neighbour, Robert Dilon to use a ladder to enter the bathroom on the second storey. Some deputies nearby also heard the noise. Entering he kept calling her name but she was not responding. He found her prone on her bed just about breathing. A handgun lay by her side. Initially he thought that she kept it for self-defense. But when she turned her head and he saw the blood on her face he realized that the old lady had shot herself. Dilon rushed down to let in the deputies. Polk had left her car keys, pocketbook together with life insurance police neatly for anyone to find. It suggested her intentions were well planned.
The unfolding tragedy is that there are many like Polk – either older or younger. The foreclosure trouble was the same.
Polk had contracted a 30-year-old mortgage on her house in 2004 for $45,620 with Countrywide. On the same day she took out a line of credit for $11,380. The house was over a hundred years old. The following few years Polk began to miss out on mortgage payments on the house that her husband had purchased in 1970. In 2007 Fannie Mae took over the mortgage and initiated foreclosure proceedings.
