'Sorry' doesn't quite cut it

Another example of corporate bureaucrats doing things that would put you or me in jail...

Charlie and Maria Cardoso are among the millions of Americans who have experienced the misery and embarrassment that come with home foreclosure.

Just one problem: The Massachusetts couple paid for their future retirement home in Spring Hill with cash in 2005, five years before agents for Bank of America seized the house, removed belongings and changed the locks on the doors, according to a lawsuit the couple have filed in federal court.

The bank had an incorrect address on foreclosure documents — the house it meant to seize is across the street and about 10 doors down — but the Cardosos and a Realtor employed by Bank of America were unable to convince the company that it had the wrong house, the suit states.

Possessions the couple had stored at the home, including photos, clothes, tools and small appliances, had been removed and are presumably lost, the complaint states.

As others have pointed out, BofA didn't 'foreclose' on this house, since they never owned a mortgage on it. What they did was steal it. The article gives the industry's position that the increasing number of foreclosures makes it more likely that 'mistakes will happen.' Boo hoo. There are some functions in society for which error is unacceptable. When police shoot a resident in a no-knock raid on the wrong house, for instance, "oops" isn't a sufficient response.

And when a bank seizes property they have absolutely no documented claim to, "sorry" just doesn't fix it. Especially since Americans, including the Cardosos, were forced to bail out that very bank not too long ago...