Alvin and Pat Tjosaas, a retired couple in Woodland Hills, Calif., had the bad luck of having their home mistaken for a neighboring foreclosed home and being cleared by contractors hired by Wells Fargo -- not once but twice.
The Tjosaas' home before contractors mistakenly cleared it. (Courtesy Pat Tjosaas)
A retired bricklayer, Alvin Tjosaas, 77, was the caretaker of his late parents' two-bedroom home in Twentynine Palms, about 200 miles east of his home in Woodland Hills, north of Los Angeles. He is a part owner of the home with his sisters.
Alvin Tjosaas visited the home every four to five months, he said, for maintenance and to work on hobbies in the garage.
"He just loves it up there," Pat Tjosaas, 75, said. "He was in the process of getting ready to re-plumb the house, so he had lots of his tools up there – just a garage full of tools that any man would die for."
But on June 1, a neighbor in Twentynine Palms called the Tjosaas family, asking if they had authorized people to clear out their home.
"We assumed it was a break-in and, really, it was a break-in," Tjosaas said. "They weren't legally supposed to be there."
Tom Goyda, vice president of corporate communications for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, told ABC News the company had foreclosed appropriately on another property near the Tjosaas house and the error was made when a contractor mistakenly went to the Tjosaas house instead of the correct house.
Courtesy Alvin and Pat Tjossas
Alvin and Pat Tjossas' home after Wells Fargo... View Full Size
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The Tjosaas home had actually never had a mortgage or lien on it because it was paid for in cash as it was being built about 50 years ago.
"We are deeply sorry for the very personal losses the Tjosaas family suffered as a result of their home being mistakenly secured and entered by a contractor hired to address a different nearby property," the company said in a statement. "We moved quickly and have been in contact with the Tjosaas family to resolve this unfortunate situation and right this wrong."
Once the neighbor called, the Tjosaases called the police but were not able to drive to the property immediately because they were attending their granddaughter's wedding.
When her husband drove to the property three days later, she said the workers said they were authorized to clear out a foreclosed home. Finally, the sheriff came and escorted the workers to the intended location, 10 acres away, she said.
"Alvin was left to sit among the ruins of the house," Tjosaas said of her husband.
She later learned the contractors had used a satellite photo and an address given to them by Wells Fargo.
"They simply were at the wrong location," she said, "not even on our road.
The Tjosaases contacted an attorney and Wells Fargo, but Pat Tjosaas said her attorney "was having trouble getting a contact to return his calls" at the company.
The couple did their best to clean up the mess and asked Wells Fargo to have another subcontractor replace the locks on their home.
However, over Labor Day weekend, Alvin Tjosaas, went to check on the home and saw that it had been broken into and "vandalized" again.
"They had taken things like propane tanks, tires, rims that belonged to vintage cars, and put them on the lawn," his wife said.
The Tjosaases later learned Wells Fargo had hired another contractor who made the same mistake as the first.
Frustrated again, the Tjosaases called their son-in-law, a captain with the Los Angeles Fire Department, who contacted the local media.
"He said, 'Enough is enough'," Pat Tjosaas said.
On Wednesday, the local CBS affiliate produced a story about Wells Fargo twice mistaking the home for a foreclosed property.
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