Landlady to tenant: "I'm going to strip this mother"

America's romance with real estate ownership has quickly turned into a rather sour affair.

Within a period of just a few years, we've gone from a nation that was "gaga over real estate" (per the now infamous Time Magazine cover in the summer of 2005) to a nation of homeowners who want out of their housing relationship in the worst way.

Just walking away seems to come easier every day and an increasing number of spurned lovers are taking out their frustration on what was previously the subject of their affection.

From TampaBay.com (courtesy of Patrick.net) comes news that one in five foreclosed homeowners are now stripping their property before turning the keys over to the bank.

Mike Burgur returned from work last month to interrupt a break-in at his rented Clearwater Beach condominium.

The intruders were stripping fans off the ceiling and the knobs off the doors. They had carted out the refrigerator and yanked up a toilet. They'd even pulled the plates off electrical outlets and unscrewed the faucet handles.

As he stepped around the broken eggs and jelly jars on the kitchen floor, Burgur had no trouble recognizing the culprit: It was his own landlady.

"I'm going to strip this mother," the 70-ish property owner raved to Burgur, as she ripped apart the 950-square-foot unit on Island Way.

Welcome to a dark corner of the foreclosure business: People who lose their homes to foreclosure and in a pique of revenge strip the homes before the bank takes them back.
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Witness this single-story beige stucco house in St. Petersburg's Northeast Park neighborhood. The old owner bought the house near the peak of the market in 2005 for $152,800 and couldn't make the payments.

Neighbors were shocked last month when, as the bank zeroed in on the house, the former owner leased a Bobcat excavator and uprooted the wooden privacy fence and five palm trees. Postholes still litter the yard.

That wasn't the end of it. The ex-owner dismantled and removed the garage door and the double French doors in the rear, leaving the home exposed to the elements. A piece of plywood now covers the gap in the back.

Hey, copper is almost back up to $4 a pound - get the plumbing.