Role Reversal: Homeowner Forecloses on Bank of America

This is the first story that has come out of the financial world in the past few years that has made me truly laugh and smile. A win for the little guy.

A couple years ago, Warren and Maureen Nyerges a couple from Naples, Florida fulfilled the American dream: home ownership. They actually paid cash, which in these perilous financial times is a refreshing thing to hear. So you can imagine their shock when in 2010 they started to receive notices and phone calls from Bank of America, the largest retail bank in the country, telling them that the bank was foreclosing on their house.

The Nyerges struggled for some time to even find a lawyer who would represent them against Bank of America. In fact, the only one who would take the case  had passed the bar just 8 months earlier. Despite the lawyer's inexperience, they won in court, and a judge ordered Bank of America to pay attorneys fees and other menial damages amounting to around $2,500.

So that should be the end of the story, right? Well Bank of America -- in contempt of the court -- never bothered to pay. So on June 3rd the Nyerges gave the bank a little taste of its own medicine. They showed up to the BofA in their area and... foreclosed on it.

Accompanied by two local sheriffs, two RePo men and a truck, their attorney gave instructions to remove desks, computers, copiers, filing cabinets and "any cash in the teller's drawers." They even locked the manager out of the bank. Desperate, he manage to cut a check to the Nyerges about an hour later.

Hearing this story made me feel good. It made me want to tell everyone around me as soon as I heard. This couple foreclosed ON a bank....on a bank! It certainly took some dramatic flair, but that these Joe Everybodys were able to padlock the doors of the largest bank in the nation shows that the little guy can sometimes win against corporate America.