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Shot that hit victim heard on Capitol Hill
By Phil Trexler, Betty Lin-Fisher and Stephanie Warsmith
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 09:40 p.m. EDT, Oct 03, 2008
The shots that 90-year-old Addie Polk fired into her chest as she was about to be evicted from her foreclosed Akron home were heard in Washington, D.C.
On Friday, as Congress was preparing a bailout of Wall Street, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Cleveland, took the House floor and decried Polk's plight.
By midafternoon, the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) announced it would dismiss its foreclosure action against Polk, forgive her mortgage and allow her to return to the home where she's lived since 1970.
In the meantime, Polk remains in Akron General Medical Center.
She is expected to recover from the chest wounds she suffered Wednesday when she apparently shot herself as Summit County sheriff's deputies came with foreclosure eviction papers.
Robert Dillon, Polk's longtime neighbor, was one of the few visitors the woman allowed on Friday. He said Polk's condition was good and she was resting well.
It was Dillon who climbed through a window of Polk's LaCroix Avenue home and found the widow lying in bed bleeding. A small-caliber gun was next to her.
''She said it was a crazy thing to do, now that she's had time to think about it,'' said Dillon, her neighbor for 38 years. ''You know, the good Lord works in different ways. Maybe what's happened to her will help a lot of other seniors in this country.''
Court and property records show that Polk took sole ownership of the home in 1995, when her husband, Robert, died. They had bought the 1,200-square-foot house in 1970 for $10,000. It was paid off in 1982.
In 1997, Polk took out a $21,000 mortgage; in 2001, she paid off the original loan with a $46,400 mortgage. She refinanced again in 2004, taking a 30-year mortgage for $45,620 from Countrywide Home Loans.
Fannie Mae assumed the Countrywide loan after it filed foreclosure action against Polk in September 2007. She ignored the lawsuit and notices left at her home.
The home was sold to Fannie Mae at a sheriff's auction in June. Deputies were to escort Polk from her home Wednesday when gunshots were heard inside.
Brian Faith, a Fannie Mae spokesman, said the case came to the company's attention after publicity about Polk's apparent suicide attempt and Kucinich's statements about the case in Washington.
''Just given the circumstances, we think it's appropriate,'' Faith said. ''It certainly made our radar screen.''
Kucinich said he read about what happened to Polk in the Akron Beacon Journal and rushed onto the House floor to relay the story to his colleagues.
He said he is frustrated that the country's $700 billion financial bailout plan doesn't provide help to people like Polk.
''It doesn't address the problem of millions of Americans on the verge of foreclosures,'' he said. ''People need to hear this story. This is a human face for a great national tragedy.''
Polk's longtime friend DeWitt Herring remembered how excited the Polks were when they moved into the LaCroix Avenue home. Robert Polk was retired from Goodrich Tire in Akron. Mrs. Polk has no children of her own.
Herring said he and his wife often picked Polk up for dinner.
''We had her over the house a few months ago. She didn't let on she was having any problem. She kept her business very much to herself,'' he said.
The only hint that Polk was having financial problems came in a conversation Robert Dillon's wife had with her neighbor.
''A couple years ago, she complained about inflation eating away at her husband's pension. But that was it,'' Dillon said.
Polk also never mentioned her problems to friends at the Akron church she attends every week. The Rev. David Dodson, pastor at Antioch Baptist Church, said he had no idea that Polk was in distress.
''She is the most pleasant individual that I've ever met. ...She is very proud, very independent and pretty much a loner. She has never complained about anything,'' Dodson said. ''If we had known, if I had known, this would never had occurred. We would have rescued her.''
Dodson said that in his more than four years as pastor, the church has helped at least two other members stop foreclosures.
Akron City Council President Marco Sommerville said he intends to work with county officials to better help those facing foreclosure.
He said foreclosures are rampant in Akron. On the east side, he said 99 foreclosures were filed in one recent month.
One concept he is proposing would be written notification of available services to everyone who is served with foreclosure papers.
''The bottom line is there are a lot of other people out there that need help too,'' he said. ''And we have to find a way to help people and make sure they are not driven to taking drastic measures to get attention to their serious problem.''
The shots that 90-year-old Addie Polk fired into her chest as she was about to be evicted from her foreclosed Akron home were heard in Washington, D.C.
On Friday, as Congress was preparing a bailout of Wall Street, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Cleveland, took the House floor and decried Polk's plight.
By midafternoon, the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) announced it would dismiss its foreclosure action against Polk, forgive her mortgage and allow her to return to the home where she's lived since 1970.
In the meantime, Polk remains in Akron General Medical Center.
She is expected to recover from the chest wounds she suffered Wednesday when she apparently shot herself as Summit County sheriff's deputies came with foreclosure eviction papers.
Robert Dillon, Polk's longtime neighbor, was one of the few visitors the woman allowed on Friday. He said Polk's condition was good and she was resting well.
It was Dillon who climbed through a window of Polk's LaCroix Avenue home and found the widow lying in bed bleeding. A small-caliber gun was next to her.
''She said it was a crazy thing to do, now that she's had time to think about it,'' said Dillon, her neighbor for 38 years. ''You know, the good Lord works in different ways. Maybe what's happened to her will help a lot of other seniors in this country.''
Court and property records show that Polk took sole ownership of the home in 1995, when her husband, Robert, died. They had bought the 1,200-square-foot house in 1970 for $10,000. It was paid off in 1982.
In 1997, Polk took out a $21,000 mortgage; in 2001, she paid off the original loan with a $46,400 mortgage. She refinanced again in 2004, taking a 30-year mortgage for $45,620 from Countrywide Home Loans.
Fannie Mae assumed the Countrywide loan after it filed foreclosure action against Polk in September 2007. She ignored the lawsuit and notices left at her home.
The home was sold to Fannie Mae at a sheriff's auction in June. Deputies were to escort Polk from her home Wednesday when gunshots were heard inside.
Brian Faith, a Fannie Mae spokesman, said the case came to the company's attention after publicity about Polk's apparent suicide attempt and Kucinich's statements about the case in Washington.
''Just given the circumstances, we think it's appropriate,'' Faith said. ''It certainly made our radar screen.''
Kucinich said he read about what happened to Polk in the Akron Beacon Journal and rushed onto the House floor to relay the story to his colleagues.
He said he is frustrated that the country's $700 billion financial bailout plan doesn't provide help to people like Polk.
''It doesn't address the problem of millions of Americans on the verge of foreclosures,'' he said. ''People need to hear this story. This is a human face for a great national tragedy.''
Polk's longtime friend DeWitt Herring remembered how excited the Polks were when they moved into the LaCroix Avenue home. Robert Polk was retired from Goodrich Tire in Akron. Mrs. Polk has no children of her own.
Herring said he and his wife often picked Polk up for dinner.
''We had her over the house a few months ago. She didn't let on she was having any problem. She kept her business very much to herself,'' he said.
The only hint that Polk was having financial problems came in a conversation Robert Dillon's wife had with her neighbor.
''A couple years ago, she complained about inflation eating away at her husband's pension. But that was it,'' Dillon said.
Polk also never mentioned her problems to friends at the Akron church she attends every week. The Rev. David Dodson, pastor at Antioch Baptist Church, said he had no idea that Polk was in distress.
''She is the most pleasant individual that I've ever met. ...She is very proud, very independent and pretty much a loner. She has never complained about anything,'' Dodson said. ''If we had known, if I had known, this would never had occurred. We would have rescued her.''
Dodson said that in his more than four years as pastor, the church has helped at least two other members stop foreclosures.
Akron City Council President Marco Sommerville said he intends to work with county officials to better help those facing foreclosure.
He said foreclosures are rampant in Akron. On the east side, he said 99 foreclosures were filed in one recent month.
One concept he is proposing would be written notification of available services to everyone who is served with foreclosure papers.
''The bottom line is there are a lot of other people out there that need help too,'' he said. ''And we have to find a way to help people and make sure they are not driven to taking drastic measures to get attention to their serious problem.''
Comments
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Posted 10:41 PM, 10/03/2008
Thank you Akron Beacon Journal, especially Phil Trexler, Betty Lin-Fisher and Stephanie Warsmith.
Thank you Dennis Kucinich, for being OUR voice.
Thank you to EVERYONE who had the guts to shine a light on such a tragedy.
I hope that Addie Polk can recover, and go back to HER HOME.
A VERY SPECIAL THANK YOU goes out to Mr. Dillon.
Everyone should have such a good neighbor close by.
You may have saved Addie's life.
Also, thank you Marco Sommerville, for getting involved.
Posted 11:22 PM, 10/03/2008
Where did the money from her additional mortgages go?
The Great City in, OH
Posted 11:30 PM, 10/03/2008
Posted by john 08:04 PM, 10/03/2008
Hey, if I shoot myself can I get a free house too?
__________________________________________
There’s one way to find out! If you shoot yourself in the head you’ll get a "FREE" ride in a limosine.
Posted 11:56 PM, 10/03/2008
i don't care what the a-holes say. it's the right thing to do. she was taken advantage of-period. i'm very happy she is getting her home back.
by the way. how did the deputies mistake gunshots for anything other than gunshots?? why did they let the other elderly neighbor climb a ladder and investigate?????? why is marco giving the sheriff a pass on this? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Anti-Politically Correct & Anti-GOP, OH
Posted 08:00 AM, 10/04/2008
Wow.....shoot yourself, get your mortgage dismissed, live free. I expect this to become an epidemic.
akron, oh
Posted 08:40 AM, 10/04/2008
Yes - people all over Akron will now be shooting themselves to try and get a free ride. this could turn out to be a good thing.
akron, oh
Posted 02:24 PM, 10/04/2008
at 90 yrs. old or 86 we all know she had to have been taken advantage of manipulated, follow the paper trail.
akron, oh
Posted 04:32 PM, 10/04/2008
So the 700 billion is going to go to people like this? I dont know if I am happy. Or sad. Its a sad story. But are we tossing good money after bad?
Too much credit was the problem to start with. Is it going to make it Worse with the bail out money? It still remains to be seen in my opinion.
Now they have an extra 700 billion plus the extra 100 billion in extra's....
We all are getting the shaft for it... And we didnt even get kissed first... Or a glass of wine.
Akron, OH
Posted 01:32 AM, 10/05/2008
Another Countrywide Bank fiasco. Those guys are scalawags.
Posted 10:13 AM, 10/05/2008
Walk a mile, or even one step, in the shoes of this 90 yr. old widow!
Akron, OH
Posted 02:24 PM, 10/06/2008
I'd rather they use that 700 billion to help the regular US citizens than to use my tax money to help those fat pigs on wall street.
akron, OH
Posted 08:34 AM, 10/07/2008
To little to late
Posted 12:06 PM, 10/08/2008
This is a sad and desperate situation. It saddens me to hear jokes about getting a free home for shooting yourself. Eugene and Steve.... you must not know what it's like to be old and desperate, nor have a grandmother who struggles.. Shame on you...
Posted 08:56 PM, 10/08/2008
Two comments: What in the H*** is a company doing lending that kind of money to a 90-year-old woman, and why on earth would she need that money? It's a sad situation and I'm glad compassion was shown. I'm familiar with that type of situation. When my father passed away, we found out that he had *five* mortgages on his home, lent to a retired man who'd never have a chance of paying that kind of money back.
