Reuters-
* Teenagers get invitations to vandalism parties, descend on foreclosed homes
* Invitations posted on Facebook, Twitter
* Homes wrecked with “Sharpies,” arrests made
By Tim Reid
LOS ANGELES, Aug 16 (Reuters) – In the age of Facebook and Twitter, a new crime has hit America: “Sharpie parties,” gatherings of party revelers armed with “Sharpie” magic markers and lured by social media invitations to wreak havoc on foreclosed homes.
Five years into the U.S. foreclosure crisis, Sharpie parties are a new form of blight on the landscape of boarded-up homes, brown lawns and abandoned streets. They are also the latest iteration of collective home-trashing spurred by social media.
At least six Sharpie parties were reported in one California county in recent months, where invitations posted online drew scores to foreclosed homes.
The partygoers are handed Sharpie pens on arrival by their hosts and urged to graffiti the walls – a destructive binge that often prompts other acts of vandalism including smashing holes in walls and doors, flooding bathrooms and ripping up floors.
[REUTERS]
image: blog.sharpie.com
© 2010-19 FORECLOSURE FRAUD | by DinSFLA. All rights reserved.
Why should we expect teenagers to respect these properties when the trusts, who ostensibly own them, do not? I’m not condoning it, but neither am I surprised, much less shocked by it. I’m much more shocked by the banks’ behavior, although looking at history, I shouldn’t be.
The Banksters, as soon as they’ve washed their hands of a property, have no compelling reason for additional concern.
The social problems that hardships create are rarely discussed in the US today, it’s either a crime warranting brutal responses, or it isn’t. Further, if widespread anti-social behavior is committed by wealthier individuals, Banks or corporations, we have little to no attempts to reign that behavior in. This “rampage” may in fact be of benefit to the Banksters, but we won’t hear that from the “press”. Blight may bring developers and bulldozers.