Brandy, the Paranoid Mortgage Customer

[Ironclad Alibi]

When we got back to the bank, I contacted the gal from the housing assistance place. I wanted to know if the funds would come directly to the bank. They will. Good news, then! I got Brandy to sign the document you needed to complete her application! Cool, we should get the funds in 1-2 weeks. Enough to cover 3 months worth of payments. I know it just kicks the can down the road another 3 months, but at least it's something.

Does Brandy know the housing assistance money is going to the bank?

Or is she expecting it to come to her?

If the latter, she will be very upset, to put it mildly.

[csquared]

I've got $5.00 that says she has a meltdown when she finds out that the bank got all the money.

[Buzzard]

Yup, still sounds like meth. possibly mixed with other things. She might not have been all that tightly wrapped BEFORE the fun chemicals.

She's paranoid, so puts up cameras. (no telling if they were ever installed properly) The manic activity from a meth high prompts disassembling things to see how they work, but not any actual ability to do so properly, or the clarity of mind to be able to put them back together in any functional manner. So yes, she's got cameras. Wouldn't give you more than scrap price for the whole lot of them at this point.

Sadly, the whole thing with helping her... is just dragging things out, allowing her to dig further into her chemical rut.

[Ghel]

Brandy's paranoia, etc. came to a head yesterday. We won't be visiting her again! We might send the sheriff if we need to serve her papers in the future.

Brandy was supposed to make a payment last week. Unsurprisingly, we didn't receive anything. She was also supposed to provide a phone number where we could reach her. That also didn't happen.

In the meantime, I was contacted by the person who's processing her COVID-19 Housing Assistance application. She needed some information from the bank, which I provided. Brandy left me a voicemail Friday saying she'd been approved for this housing assistance (no mention of the money she was supposed to bring or a phone number to reach her). I wasn't going to take her word, so I contacted the housing assistance person again. She said she was waiting on a form that she'd emailed Brandy multiple times. She wasn't able to get hold of her any more, either, because she has no email or phone. I offered to try to visit Brandy and get her to sign the form. The gal was thankful.

Branch Manager and I went to Brandy's house again yesterday. This visit was completely different from the last one. We walked up and knocked. We heard, "Go the f**k away!" BM knocked again. "I'm coming!" Then we waited. We heard Brandy pacing through the house, mumbling. We waited some more. We made note of the hole the dog(s) had dug in the yard. I noticed the wires hanging loose from her 3 cameras, including disconnected wires on one of them. A neighbor came out and sat on her front porch to watch the proceedings.

After a few minutes, BM knocked again. Brandy yelled profanities at us through the door. BM said, loudly, that we just needed to talk with her. She opened the door, but left the glass door closed. It's one of those security doors with the full panel of durable glass with fancy metal bars over top. She was dressed very different from last time. Last time, she was wearing pajama pants and a hoodie. This time, she was wearing a little black dress with a pretty necklace. And she had her hair and makeup done, like she was going out. We told her that we were there to help. She paced back and forth, agitated. She continued yelling obscenities at us.

I tried to explain that we were trying to help her get her housing assistance. They needed this form signed, you see. I held out the clipboard with the form and a pen. She unlocked the deadbolt on the security door and took the clipboard, then ducked back inside with it, locking the security door again. I was surprised, to say the least. She started walking into the house with it. "Brandy, I at least need my clipboard back!"

After a minute, she came back with the clipboard and form. "Is this what you wanted!? Do you want me to sign my house away!?" I don't think she even read what she was signing, which was just a one-page document allowing the housing assistance to gather information to approve her application. "Brandy, we're just trying to help you get the housing assistance you wanted." "Well, I signed it. Is that good?" She made it sound like an accusation. "I can fill out the rest of it, if you want..." I was very confused at this point, not sure what to make of her.

She unlocked the security door and stepped out onto the porch. She shoved the clipboard back at us and started yelling in our faces some more. "You can take this house and shove it up your a**! You can tell the sheriff that I can't afford to live here because people keep stealing from me!" After a bit more of this, she stomped back into the house, slamming the door behind her and locking it. She yelled some more while we left.

The neighbor was still sitting on her front steps. BM apologized to her. She said "it's like this every day."

BM said he was afraid one of the times she was pacing back and forth, she was going to bring out a gun and start shooting at us. Which, I guess, you never know.

When we got back to the bank, I contacted the gal from the housing assistance place. I wanted to know if the funds would come directly to the bank. They will. Good news, then! I got Brandy to sign the document you needed to complete her application! Cool, we should get the funds in 1-2 weeks. Enough to cover 3 months worth of payments. I know it just kicks the can down the road another 3 months, but at least it's something.



When I told this story to my partner, they said they've known drug users who have run to the gas station for chips multiple times while high, then wonder where all their money went. They suspect the same thing might be happening with Brandy.

They also suggested that it might be time to ask for a welfare check. But I pointed out that the sheriffs/police are already aware of her and her paranoia. She's constantly contacting them to report theft or stalking. I don't think asking for a welfare check would improve the situation.

[Ghel]

Unsurprisingly, Brandy's story changed again. She was supposed to make a payment yesterday when she got her unemployment check. She didn't show, so we made another house visit.

She spent the first 10 minutes trying to corral her dogs so she could let us in, in an effort to show us the work she's been doing on the house (to get it ready to sell, maybe?). The house did smell of paint and... ammonia? Has she been cooking her own meth? She said she's been fixing holes that, I assume, the dogs made in the walls. The parts of the house I saw did look nice, other than a few places where she'd filled holes in the drywall.

We asked about the payment. Brandy said she's not sure how much money she has left. After prompting, she said she got her unemployment check yesterday. So can she write us a check? She doesn't have checks. Can she run to her bank and make a withdrawal? Maybe after she has some coffee. Says the woman who's still in her pajamas at 3:30 in the afternoon. How much can she pay? 1, 2, 300? Maybe. She'll have to see how much she has.

I asked about her phone number. Well, you see... She broke her phone. But she bought a new one. But she was cleaning out the garage, and someone went into the house and stole it. While she was home! Doesn't she have cameras? Yeah, but they don't do any good. She got pictures of the guy, but the sheriffs won't do anything. Her stalker was parked outside her house 3 times one day, and they didn't do anything! He stalks her day and night, but the police don't do anything.

Here's where she explained she has mental health issues and some form of anemia. Which makes it hard to get a job. She only needs one more hour of training to get a good job again. But with the stress from being stalked, she can't get it done. She's a genius, she says. Don't listen to what anyone else says!

Can her mom help her out? No, she's not going to ask her mom for money.

We finally got her to agree to make a cash withdrawal and drop it off at our branch today. If she doesn't make it in before we close, she's supposed to put it in the night deposit. If she doesn't follow through, I'll be calling her mom again tomorrow.

[emax4]

- she said she will be starting a new job in December in a city that's an hour and a half drive away.

You get the name of the company, call the company while on her premises and have them verify that she will indeed start working with them. In the meantime, that's more than 60 days for her to find another job, but not long enough for the tow trucks to appear and tow her vehicles away.

[Victory Sabre]

) - she said she will be starting a new job in December in a city that's an hour and a half drive away. That's a hell of a commute. And what company hires someone but doesn't have them start for 3 months?

Even a longer drive during winter in Minnesota.

I actually do have a friend who lives here in central MN, but works at the MSP airport, an hour and a half drive, though it's almost all freeway. She also does 4 10 hour days a week.

[Buzzard]

Anything that comes out of that mouth, consider it to be some kind of lie. She's in full-on deflect mode, on chemical overdrive. She'll (cheerfully) spin you half a dozen stories for why you should give her more time and not force things to happen NOW. Said stories don't need to actually agree with each other, or even be internally coherent, just so long as they cause JUUUUUST enough pause to let her keep doing whatever the hell she wants. (and not paying up)

Seriously, her income could effortlessly double overnight, and she'd STILL have "trouble" paying the mortgage.

[Ghel]

Yeah, and I suspect that the biggest "fun" thing that she's spending so much of her money on is meth.

I forgot until just now (there was just so much off about this visit) - she said she will be starting a new job in December in a city that's an hour and a half drive away. That's a hell of a commute. And what company hires someone but doesn't have them start for 3 months?

[Buzzard]

Sounds like 'par for the course' to me. Every available penny goes to fun things, leaving the important basics to slide until something unpleasant forces a change. (at which point, scramble and shift blame to try to push back deadlines) As long as she's got any kind of protection from eviction, there will be all kinds of new toys in her life. When she finally has to pay up or move... there may be some slightly dented new toys at the pawn shop. (and/or someone else talked into letting her live there)

[Ghel]

A very strange update. I don't know if I can explain it all.

We, unsurprisingly, still haven't gotten a payment from Brandy. And as of yesterday, her phone is "unreachable" according to the message I get when I try to call her. We're also getting pressure from the president of the bank and the chairman of the board to do something. They have no advice for what we should do, just something.

So the Branch Manager and I went to visit Brandy today. She was home. Her beat-up pickup truck was in the driveway. This is the vehicle that Brandy claims was damaged by her stalker/ex-boyfriend. But apparently it works well enough to drive. She told us she's trying to sell her Jeep, which is the vehicle she bought supposedly because the truck wouldn't run.

Anyway, Brandy answered the door but refused to open the not-really-screen door. (It was a screen door with glass in it like some people do for the winter.) Her two big dogs came to the door with her - a Saint Bernard and a Pyrenees, I think. She said they would get out if she opened the door, and that seemed reasonable. The most reasonable she seemed the whole visit.

BM introduced himself. We told her she needed to make a payment. She started talking about getting COVID assistance money, while flipping through a dayplanner. She rambled about needing to email something to someone in order to get the COVID money, but her internet wasn't good. Or her scanner didn't work. Or something. She wasn't very clear. She asked if I would be able to email something to the COVID assistance place for her. I said ok just so we could move on, since she seemed stuck on it.

Since this money didn't seem like it was coming any time soon, we brought up her unemployment. She's supposed to get her next check next week, and we got her to agree to make at least one payment when she gets that. But we had to go over it several times because she kept going back to the COVID money she applied for.

At some point, she claimed that she had fallen in her driveway and hit her head, and that's why she couldn't think straight. We didn't buy that for a second.

She brought up her stalker again, saying that she's finally taken care of things with him. She finally got the police to listen. She can't use the excuse that she needs to take out another restraining order again. Knowing her, though, she'll probably try.

Before we left, I asked for her new phone number. She said she had a brand new iphone (but can't afford to pay her mortgage ), but she didn't know the number. I asked her to call me with it as soon as she figures out what it is.

[Ghel]

September 11?? Interesting date for them to choose >_>

I think it's just coincidence. It was a month out from when the moratorium on foreclosures and evictions was set to expire before.

[EricKei]

September 11?? Interesting date for them to choose >_>

Maybe we'll actually get paid then.

Well, now you've gone and jinxed it

[Ghel]

Brandy wasn't answering my calls again, so I called her mother today. "Hi, sorry to bother you, but Brandy isn't answering her phone. Would you be able to get a message to her asking her to call me back? Thanks!"

That apparently prompted Brandy to call me back, finally. She was in the middle of filling out an online application for COVID-19 housing assistance. At this point, I don't actually care that she'd been out of work for months before COVID-19 even existed. I just want her to pay her past due mortgage payments, so if she can get some money from the state, more power to her. She asked me what the bank's name was (Hint: we're not US Bank ). She asked me her loan number (it's on every past due notice we send you). She asked me how much her monthly payment was and how much she was past due (also on those notices).

Then she told me more drama. "You know how I told you I had that series of break-ins about a year ago?" Yeah, you told me that even after that, you never changed the lock on your garage. "Well, my stalker," she gave me his full name this time, "he tried to convince the police chief that I was committing insurance fraud. And when he dropped off the letter, he was wearing one of the stolen shirts. Right there on camera. What an idiot." Sounds awful, Brandy.

Then she wanted me to email her a bill for her loan showing what she's past due. No problem. I emailed her the last 2 collection letters, including the Right to Cure Default.

She's supposed to hear back from the state within 5 days. Maybe we'll actually get paid then.

[Ghel]

Yes, until at least Sept. 11. So we'd have to wait until that expires to actually pursue foreclosure.

It's also why the Squatter is still living in that trailer. At least she's mowing the lawn.