Who doesn’t love a story of the little guy getting one over on a major corporation?
A retired Bay Village, Ohio, policeman named Warren Nyerges and his wife, Maureen, bought a house from Bank of America in 2009 in Naples, Fla., for $165,000, and paid for it all upfront.
Somehow B of A became convinced that the Nyerges’ were behind in their payments, and filed for foreclosure.
Once Bank of America dropped the case after realizing its error, it was ordered by a judge to pay the couple’s attorney fees.
But it didn’t. And so finally, the lawyer, Todd Allen, did what we’d all LOVE to do: He got two sheriff’s deputies to storm a B of A branch and demand they pay the fees, or he’d have the police start seizing the bank’s furniture and sell it at auction.
Big surprise here: the bank quickly cut the $2,500 check.
But how great would it have been to see the crappy couches and the desks where the immovable pens are housed hauled off, and “foreclosed” on, so to speak?
**Ah, nothing like improvised games on the playground. They’re not always, eh, the safest things in the world.
Check out this ridiculous game some kids in Sweden were playing. Nah, I can’t see this causing any injuries…
** Maybe it’s the same way in other professions. Or maybe it’s just sportswriters.
But I always get a little sad when legends of my business die, even when I didn’t know them or were too familiar with their work.
Tom McEwen was a legend of Tampa, Fla., a man who had his fingertips on everything that happened in his city. He was a sports columnist for the Tampa Tribune, but he was also his city’s No. 1 booster. He helped convince NFL owners to bring a franchise to Tampa. He was instrumental in getting stadiums built in that city. He lobbied for decades to help Tampa get a major league hockey and major league baseball team.
He is a man from a dying era, a time when every city had a major sports columnist who everyone waited to hear from. Jim Murray was that guy in L.A. Red Smith was the guy in New York. Mitch Albom used to be that guy in Detroit.
Tom McEwen died last weekend at 88, and the tributes to him are really beautiful. Check out this one by the man who followed him in the columnist spot at the paper once McEwen retired, an immensely gifted writer named Martin Fennelly.
I am sad for Tom McEwen, and sadder still because there are fewer and fewer legends of my profession still walking among us.
