Man bulldozes own home ahead of foreclosure to send message to banks
February 22, 2010
Hoskins reportedly owed $160,000 on a home valued at $350,000. "And someone decides they want to take it – no, I wasn't going to stand for that, so I took it down," he told WLWT.
Hoskins said he'd gotten a $170,000 offer from someone to pay off the house, but the bank refused, saying they could get more from selling it in foreclosure.Hoskins told News 5's Courtis Fuller that he issued the bank an ultimatum.
"I'll tear it down before I let you take it," Hoskins told them.
And that's exactly what Hoskins did.
"As far as what the bank is going to get, I plan on giving them back what was on this hill exactly (as) it was," said the former homeowner. "I brought it out of the ground and I plan on putting it back in the ground."
Hoskins may seem like a hero but some are saying the facts in the story don't add up. Reason notes that Hoskins is not your average out-of-work-homeowner.
He was well above water on the $350,000 home. He claims never to have missed a payment on the house: RiverHills Bank is foreclosing because somebody, presumably brain-sucking space aliens, used the house as collateral for loans on some commercial properties Hoskins bought. And Hoskins' defaults on his payments have little to do with the post-2006 real estate deflation. They spring from a 10-year legal battle that involved RiverHills Bank, the IRS, and Hoskins' brother, a former business partner.So I'm inclined to agree with WLWT commenter madcastler, who writes, "[D]on't loan Hoskins any money. He will stiff you, destroy the collateral, and then go on the evening news and act like he's a hometown hero for not surrendering the collateral to you as he promised. Of course, in reality, he is an immoral person who has just raised the cost of doing business for other entrepreneurs. I'm just warning you in case you actually believe in this guy."
This video is from WLWT, broadcast Feb. 19, 2010.
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