Dozens of police foreclose on Georgia family in middle of the night at gunpoint

Dekalb County, GA- The Dekalb County Sherriff’s Department evicted three generations of a Georgia family from their home in the middle of the night, entering the home with guns drawn.

Christine Frazer lived in her suburban Atlanta home for 18 years, but fell on hard times in 2009 when she lost her husband and then her job. She lived with her mother, daughter and grandson and had a foreclosure attorney challenging her foreclosure.

Because Occupy Atlanta activists were camped on her lawn trying to keep her in her home, Dekalb County Sherriff Thomas Brown wanted to evict Frazer in the middle of the night. Brown was also trying to avoid any media attention.

At 3 a.m. dozens of patrol cars lined the streets, then officers entered her home with their guns drawn and told her, her 85 year-old mother, her daughter and grandson to grab their belongings “like they were in a fire,” and forced them to leave the home.

The Sherriff’s office hired people to remove all of Frazer’s belongings and pile them on the front lawn in the dark.

The eviction came as a surprise to Frazer since she had just talked to the bank the day before the abrupt eviction. She and her foreclosure lawyer were negotiating with her mortgage company to modify the terms of her loan, which had changed hands several times. But the bank refused her modification and asked the Sherriff’s department to kick the family out.

Sherriff evictions aren’t unusual as millions of homeowners are facing foreclosure, what’s unusual is the Dekalb County Sherriff’s Department used five times as many deputies as necessary and did the eviction in the middle of the night.

Foreclosure doesn’t mean a person has to lose their home, with the assistance of a foreclosure attorney; the troubled homeowner can contest a bank’s decision. For some homeowners, a short sale may be their best option.