Barricaded in Home for 24 Hours, Homeowner Interviewed Through Hole in Wall

Keith Sadler, five others, and a handful of activists with the Toledo Foreclosure Defense League continued their fight yesterday against foreclosure in the town of Stony Ridge.

Sadler has locked himself inside his house for the past 24 hours and expects to be evicted.

He has gone on the Internet on social network sites, such as UStream, Twitter, and YouTube, to get his point across.

The TFDL is on Sadler’s porch and in the trees on Fremont Pike, waiting for police to arrive and tell them to leave, but that has yet to occur.

“We’re willing to stay as long as possible,” Sadler said through a hole in the wall of his house. “Obviously, they will jump a couple of hurdles. We’re not leaving until our demands are met, or they drag us out.”

Sadler got his first foreclosure notice from State Bank and Trust in January of last year, only weeks subsequent to having surgery on his arthritic hands and getting four months behind on his mortgage. He had recently been laid off from Dana Corporation, where the recession had led to less work.

“I always kept in contact with the bank,” Sadler told The Sentinel-Tribune. “The next thing I know, I got the foreclosure notice. That was right after they told me they were going to work with me on the loan.”

Following receiving the notice, Sadler applied for a loan modification and was denied. He attempted to get help from a legal aid organization, but was rejected due to the group being inundated with foreclosures.

“I did everything I could to try to save my home,” he said. “The system is failed.”

In April of last year, Sadler paid a visit to FOX Toledo News to discuss the foreclosure crisis and the TFDL.

TFDL decided to back his cause and help him by organizing a demonstration. Lance Crandall of the league said they have no other choice.

“All safeguards have failed,” he said. “That’s why we’re here today.”

Sadler and the activists are aware that what they are doing is illegal but don’t care. Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn said his deputies plan to come to the home, but it’s just a matter of when.

Have a look at the news coverage of the story above.