Occupiers occupy home of 66 year old woman in Portland, Oregon
Occupiers being evicted from Gloria Canson’s house
It’s happened again.
Occupiers took over a house owned by 66 yr old Gloria Canson in Portland, Oregon.
There have been similar stories in other areas, such as in Seattle , where they occupied and completely destroyed a home owned by Denmark West, who was fixing it up for a low income family, and in Brooklyn, NY, where they perpetrated a fraud on the media with the assistance of Congressional candidate Charles Barron and stole the home of Wise Ahadzi for months, damaging it significantly.
Gloria Canson had lived in her house for over 30 years. A school teacher, Gloria had gotten behind on her mortgage payments by about $7000 due to a stay in the hospital and high medical bills. So when she received a letter telling her that she was in foreclosure and under eviction, she took it seriously. She called the number listed but was unable to get through to anyone.
Rather than be evicted, she moved out of the house, believing her house had been foreclosed.
A few weeks later, Occupiers moved into her home. According to the Oregonian, nearly a dozen people have lived in the home, rent free, since then. The Occupiers started receiving mail at the address, signed up for Internet and one of them put the water bill in his name.
The bank sent Gloria more notices when her loan was sold, and it was at that time she realized that she still owned her home, and her home had never been foreclosed. The bank confirmed that the letter sent to her was, in fact, a forgery.
She went home in March, intending to sell her house, and found the Occupiers there. Occupier Bryan Wiedeman had put the water bill in his name. A bill left in the house indicated he owed $530. Weideman had actually been arrested last month at the house, on charges of vandalizing ATMs and banks, part of Occupy Portland actions, according to the Oregonian. Occupiers had changed the locks on her house and told Gloria that they were legally renting her home, fixing it up for “American Properties”. As Gloria sagely observed to news media, there is no “American Properties”.
On Thursday, police served a warrant on the Occupiers and on Friday, police executed the warrant, evicting them. Police said they found anarchist materials inside, including the addresses of vacant homes as well as information on how to pick locks. They found that some of the squatters were repeat offenders, including Kerry Cunneen. After police arrested Kerry Cunneen in February for squatting in a home in the 4900 block of North Minnesota Avenue, she moved to Canson’s home.
Occupiers denied sending Canson the forged letter and one apologized to Canson, saying “we thought it was owned by the bank”. Canson called their actions “morally incomprehensible”.
See video of Gloria and media confronting Occupiers here.
