Akron: Ninety-year-old woman shoots herself while being evicted from home

AKRON - Addie Polk, 90, did not answer the knocks on her door from Summit County Sheriff deputies last Wednesday.

Authorities believe Polk instead shot herself to avoid being removed from the La Croix Avenue home that she has lived in for nearly 40 years.

Polk was listed in satisfactory condition at Akron General Medical Center on Sunday.

And Polk will have a home to return to once she is released from the hospital.

A Lieutenant with the Summit County Sheriff's Office told Channel 3 News that Federal National Mortgage Association, the company which brought the foreclosure complaint against Polk and bought her home at a sheriff's auction in June, has forgiven the loan and dropped the lawsuit.

Polk's neighbor, Robert Dillon said that Polk talked about the shooting when he visited her in the hospital.

"She said that she was happy to hear that she could still stay in her house," Dillon said. "She said that was a crazy thing to do.

" Sheriff deputies had been to Polk's home seven times since her home went into the foreclosure process. In 2004, Polk, a widow, took out a 30-year mortgage with Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. for $45,620.

According to court records, in September, 2007 Polk owed $45,259 on a home valued for auction at $42,000.

"Everybody is talking about it," said Lance Bell of Akron who lives a few blocks away from Polk.

Bell wondered why Polk didn't get a reverse mortgage, a loan against the home which would have allowed Polk not to pay back as long as she lived in her house.

"I don't know how she could have gotten a (30-year mortgage) at that age," Bell said. "That's (predatory lending) right there if you ask me."

wow. That's pretty sad.

Wow.... Talk about despairity. I sure hope it doesn't send the wrong message to others in the same boat.

I beleive Country Wide was a major distributer of Fanny May loans. They are one of several companies to profit from the bail out. I would rather have seen the mopney go to people like this lady giving her a new loan at 1% interest so she could make the payments. Even over less time the lower interest would be a lower payment. When she leaves this world the house could have then been sold and money brought back to the American people.

Believe me this is nothing. Just wait. The SEC really screwed us this time. Wow a government agency not looking out for it's people. Got to love Capitalism.

At least one needs to give credit to the mortgage company for forgiving the debt and letting her have the house after it happened. Butdon't ya just love those execs who are getting bailed out by the taxpayers? Yessiree, they are so remorseful about what they've done, they go out and have a bash for themselves including over $20,000 for spa specials

The company that forgave the loan isn't the same "predatory" bank that she defaulted on. The FNMA just bought the house from the original bank and was removing her. They just gave $30,000 to someone who probably hasn't paid her mortgage since January. So two banks just lost a bunch of money, the first one deserved it, the second one didn't.

People want capitalist freedom and want home ownership. If the banks had taken the opposite approach and denied the majority of loans in the last ten years people would be slamming them for the opposite reason. Banks have to be accurate 95% of the time, at the bare minimum. I don't want the banks to get our tax dollars, but the folks who signed on the dotted line and agreed to these loans have a responsibility to pay on them.

I guarantee you when the banks start to do what everyone wants (get really tight on their lending) people are going to totally change their tune and start crying about how hard it is to own a home in this country. Give it 5 years.

If they have a steady job and have not defaulted on past loans and have shown themselves to make payments faithfully then they will be able to get a house loan.

They will have to get smaller loans at first to prove the can make payments and earn some credit.

Afterwards they will be able to get a house loan. They may have to settle for a 3 bedroom 1 bathroom instead of an 8 bedroom 4 bathroom house but such is life. In the end they should be happy because they did not face forclosure. Then when they have enough equity to turn into a sizable downpayment they can sell the smaller house and take a loan for the bogger with enough downpayment that the loan would be realistic to pay on. But everyone wants the big house and fancy cars coming out of college even though they have school bills and have earned squat!