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Don't Hate Me: I'm Just Here to Clean Up

Clearing the detritus of owners' dreams from bank-owned homes

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 30, 2009 12:07 PM CDT
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(Newser) – Cindy Reid doesn’t want you to think she and her boss—and boyfriend—are the “bad guys.” But it is difficult when her man is the one “you never want to see pull up to your house. He has eyes that go flat when you offer excuses,” because he doesn’t have time for them: He’s there to empty your repossessed home. “On paper, the business is pretty straightforward,” Reid writes. “What's not on paper is how you feel cleaning up behind a family's dead hope.”

Reid likes her work, particularly guessing about the owners’ lives based on what they’ve left behind, though the picture is often macabre. “The wedding album discarded in the garage while the used condom sits inside a nasty pizza box in the living room,” for one. “Dog carcasses in freezers,” or the “small child’s artificial leg.” Reid doesn’t feel sorry for the former owners, she writes on Salon, but she feels for the kids “whose school pictures I have tossed into a garbage bag.” Mostly, she just wants a fare shake. “We're just trying to clean up after others.”

Workers remove furnishings from a foreclosed house.
Workers remove furnishings from a foreclosed house.   (AP Photo)
Old furniture is left on property identified by a local real estate agent as a foreclosed home.
Old furniture is left on property identified by a local real estate agent as a foreclosed home.   (AP Photo)
A foreclosed home.
A foreclosed home.   (AP Photo)
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The crayons scattered in the bedroom with the peeling princess mural. Military uniforms. Family snapshots, more than you would think. Do I really want a visual of the people whose mess I am cleaning up? I don't care to study those pictures anymore. - Cindy Reid

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 11 comments
I_hate_to_say
Oct 1, 2009 2:09 AM CDT
1. losing not loosing (why add an extra "o"?) 2. leech (the blood sucking animal) not leach (as in "to leach" minerals from soil.) 3. Newser's job is to summarize and paraphrase. Where language is taken verbatim from the original it usually it appears in quotes (see above.) Sic in parentheses (sic) should be added by the editors where they want to indicate they've preserved and unusual or incorrect form appearing in the original. That is clearly not what newser's editors intended here. This website has a reputation for sloppy proofing and editing, if you haven't noticed.
yummines
Oct 1, 2009 2:06 AM CDT
this should be (even though most reality shows are fake). it shows that while many have lost their homes, a lot of them deserved it. not even the whole idea about fine print, but for taking on a loan they could not afford. but seriously, a wedding photo in the garage but a used condom sitting in the living room? sheesh...
my-name-here
Sep 30, 2009 11:44 AM CDT
@Tim, Now there's a depressing term that's right on target.
Lifestyle • Money • US

 
trash • recession • bank • homeownership • cleaning • vacant homes • repossessions • repo men • foreclosures

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